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Democratic Party insiders have petitioned to open a write-in primary for the Green Party line in the New York Third (3rd) State Senate race. Green Party members interested in running as a candidate in the primary can contact 631-925-6104 or info@gpsuffolk.org. The district runs along the south shore of Long Island from Brentwood to Center Moriches. Lee Zeldin is the current State Senator. The State Primary is September 9, 2014. There is also a Democratic Primary in that race between Joseph Fritz and Adrienne Esposito.
The Green Party governor candidate, Howie Hawkins http://www.howiehawkins.org, has already raised a number of issues to be addressed in this year’s State races. Hawkins has called for a criminal investigation of NY Governor Andrew Cuomo and Cuomo’s disbanded Moreland Commission. Hawkins finds that Cuomo’s $40 million campaign war chest makes Cuomo the “kingpin” of the “pay-to-play political culture driven by large checks.” Hawkins asserts that “Cuomo and his staff however ensured that key issues that would reflect badly on him were stricken from the report, especially information that investigators had learned about the powerful Real Estate Board of New York and its political donations.”
Hawkins concluded that “Voters know that both major parties are corrupt. I hope that on election day voters will demand that the corruption in Albany will finally be ended by sweeping out the two parties that have too long treated the state treasury as their personal ATM.”
Addressing another important in this year’s State races, Hawkins states that “Cuomo Misleads on Women’s Equality.” Hawkins said that Governor Cuomo’s effort to create a Women’s Equality Party (WEP) ballot line is a slap in the face to the many poor women that Cuomo has neglected as Governor, especially women on welfare and women who are minimum wage workers.
WEP ironically is also the NYC title of the forced work program for poor women on welfare – Work Experience Program. Hawkins said he would eliminate WEP and replace it with jobs.
Cuomo has opposed the proposal (A7119 – Wright / S5120 – Savino) by welfare advocates such as Community Voices Heard to eliminate WEP, replacing it with a transitional jobs program to provide a paying job with training and education. Cuomo has also opposed most reforms promoted by anti-poverty advocates to improve New York’s welfare system and failed to appoint a state welfare (OTDA) Commissioner during the first several years of his administration.
“The creation of the WEP ballot line is an outrageous and blatant admission of the failure of the present system and both major political parties to adequately and authentically address the real issues of women’s lack of equality in New York State. The Green Party continues to be the only real choice for women’s rights and hope for equality,” said Theresa Portelli, the Green candidate for State Comptroller.
“The Democrats abandoned the poor, the majority of whom are women, decades ago, instead focusing their rhetoric on the so-called ‘middle class’. The Green Party has a much stronger women’s platform on a host of issues,” said Hawkins.
Hawkins, who supports a $15 an hour minimum wage, notes that the three-year deal to raise the minimum wage to $9 an hour continues to trap such workers, the majority of whom are women, in poverty. Cuomo has repeatedly undercut the minimum wage initiatives advanced by workers and anti-poverty advocates. He has also refused for more than a year to appoint a minimum wage board to provide an increase to food tip workers, 72% of whom are women.
The Green Party supports free universal child care as is standard in virtually every other industrial democracy.
Hawkins said that, when elected Governor, he would work with women advocacy organizations to pass an even stronger Women’s Equality agenda that deals with women’s health and reproductive rights, ensures pay equity and paid maternity leaves, curbs wage theft, combats sexual harassment, and includes stronger penalties for human trafficking.
“Unfortunately, Cuomo seemed more interested in using the Women’s Equality Agenda to score political points with the public than he was in passing actual legislation to deliver needed changes,” Hawkins remarked.
The Green Party is a worldwide political movement. The four pillars of the Green Party are: Social and Economic Justice; Grassroots Democracy; Ecological Wisdom and Non-Violence/Peace.
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Filed under: 3rd party, campaign finance reform, election, governor, grassroots democracy, Green Party, howie hawkins, Long Island Politics, New York State Politics, News, progressive politics, Senate, social & economic justice Tagged: | 3rd state senate, Adrienne Esposito, andrew cuomo, Joseph Fritz
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