OntheWilderSide

The only way that the Green Party can regain ballot status in NY is to get 50,000 votes for their Governor candidate in 2010. This opportunity comes only once every four years, and it only applies to the Governor’s race. Gaining ballot status will enable the Green Party to run more peace candidates, more single-payer candidates, more anti-fracking candidates, and more sustainable energy candidates. The last time that the Green Party of New York State had ballot status it set the record for running the most Green candidates of any state.

Hawkins urges Working Families members to join the Green Party following the surrender of WFP leadership

Howie Hawkins, the Green Party of New York candidate for Governor, welcomed today the support of any Working Families Party members who still wanted to support a progressive third party independent of the two corporate parties.

Working Party leaders earlier today decided to bow to the demands of Andrew Cuomo and failed to nominate a slate of statewide candidates for the fall elections. The leaders decided instead that they would just give their statewide ballot line to whichever candidates win the Democratic primary – provided that Cuomo even decides then it is ok to accept the WFP line. Cuomo has previously said that he wants to see how officials conclude their investigations into the WFP’s financing of their election efforts. Although Independence Party financial irregularities in conjunction with the Bloomberg campaign doesn’t similarly bother Cuomo.

Hawkins noted:

WFP should learn from this rejection that power for working people comes from their independent political action, not acting as a faction of the Democratic coalition and handing over their votes to the corporate-dominated Democratic Party, which then takes their votes for granted and reduces their leverage and power to nothing. The WFP, along with much of the media, promotes the party as a progressive alternative, despite their failure to pass hardly any legislation. But every time I and other Greens have faced WFP-endorsed Democratic nominees for office, the Democratic candidates supported more war, more money for the military, and more corporate welfare, while opposing things such as single payer health care or strong action on climate change. 

“Now they have rolled over for Andrew Cuomo, the latest son seeking to inherit his father’s former office, who refuses to make Wall Street and the rich pay their fair share of taxes, who intends to make war with the public employees union, supports expanding the financial waste of charter schools and wants to impose caps on public spending. The WFP leadership has become just another self-serving political faction more interested in their personal power and patronage, just use the name working families as a advertising slogan to mislead the voters,” added Hawkins, a teamster who is the only union member running for Governor.

Hawkins said he would welcome the opportunity to debate the WFP nominee but so far their candidate is just a charade playing inside political games while the WFP leadership treats their own members and the voters with disdain.

“The WFP suffers from unrequited love. They did all this work for the Dems and the Dems kick them out when they feel they no longer need them. Greens would welcome a coalition with the WFP if they embraced independent politics. On the surface, we share a lot of values and policy demands. We just see WFP’s electoral strategy as politically suicidal. Those chickens are coming home to roost with Cuomo’s rejection,” added Hawkins.

Filed under: 3rd party, activism, election, Election 2010, elections, grassroots democracy, Green Party, New York State Politics, News, Press Release, third party Tagged: | WFP, Working Families Party