WHY WE ARE RUNNING
Howie Hawkins, Green Party Candidate for Governor
“The basic issue in this campaign is: Will our state government be for the people or the corporations? We are running on the side of the people. I cannot win alone. But organized People can beat organized money. We all need to be organizers and spokespeople for this campaign with our family, friends, co-workers, and neighborhood and internet communities.
“We are running because only a grassroots movement of people reaching people can swell to the critical mass we need to achieve our goals. Every one of us can win over tens or hundreds or thousands of voters by consistent, persistent activity. “We are running to offer a real alternative to the two-party system of corporate rule.”
Michael F. Donnelly, Green Party Candidate for State Assembly
Is a graduate of Christian Brothers Academy, received a dual major Bachelor of Arts in Philosophy and English from Le Moyne College and his Doctor of Jurisprudence from Indiana University - Bloomington School of Law. He is admitted to practice in New York State and Federal District Court. He works as Assigned Counsel for the poor. His family has been working for social justice in Syracuse for three generations, they have been involved with Jail Ministry, Legal Services, the Catholic Worker, and the Peace Movement.
“We must always remember that in a democracy the government is not a thing apart from the people, it is of the people, by the people, and for the people. The Republicans and Democrats in Albany have forgotten their duty to the people of New York, with their petty squabbles over legislators’ personal privileges and which Party gets to bang the gavel they have turned New York government into a bad joke. The time has come to remind the corporate parties’ leadership that the people choose their representatives. There can be no more effective message than electing an independent.
“The people of Syracuse have grown accustomed to Greens running just to raise issues and affect the debate. That time is over. In this year in this county I believe a Green can be elected. We can win, we intend to win, and we will win, but we need your help.”
Donnelly needs 1500 signatures to secure ballot access for his candidacy. The Greens need 50,000 votes for Governor to secure ballot access for the next four years.
Our Platform comes down to food, clothing, shelter, healthcare, education and employment. Everyone needs these things and everyone has to have a fair chance to earn them.
We will be seeking universal single payer health care for all New Yorkers. Single payer is the best plan to ensure coverage of all citizens. The current system leaves many without coverage and the Federal reforms have not changed that. Single payer is the most effective way to ensure that the money spent on health care will actually be spent on health care rather than lawyers, salesmen, and paperwork.
We need employment not unemployment benefits. Private sector jobs are best, but when the private sector cannot provide enough jobs, the people still need to work. We need to create Employment Offices where anyone who needs work can go to find a job that pays a living wage. We should reconstitute a state version of the Roosevelt-Era Works Progress Administration. I have in my life been out of work. I have received unemployment benefits. It is not good for a person to be without work, even if he is still receiving money. A person needs to feel that he is doing something worthwhile and earning the money he receives.
We need to fully fund public education, the future of New York is high tech and knowledge based jobs, cutting education funding is sacrificing the future. We need to provide public funding for education from pre-k all the way through college and professional degrees.
We need to rebuild the physical infrastructure of the state, we need to rebuild the communications and transportation infrastructure of the state, we need to rebuild the energy infrastructure of the state with locally produced, green, renewable energy sources.
We need a ban on the dangerous practice of Hydrofracking. The people of Onondaga County have good reason to be wary of the pie-in-the-sky promises of the gas companies. The last time big business with big promises came here, they turned Onondaga Lake from a source of life to one of the most polluted waters in the world. The corporations and their money are long gone and we are still cleaning up the mess they left behind.
And we need to pay the bills for all the work that needs to be done. New York’s current budget gap could be closed completely without increase the working people’s taxes. The State rebated $16 billion on the Stock Transfer Tax this past year, money that goes to swell bankers’ profits. The state cannot continue to operate on deficits aggravated by the legislator’s failure to pass an on time budget. Americans do not like taxes because Americans do not get much for their money. I propose to see to it that we receive value for our money.
Lastly we need to reform the structure of government in Albany. Democratize legislative rules to empower rank-and-file legislators and legislative committees, eliminate member items and other patronage machine money that cements the power monopoly of legislative leaders. We need nonpartisan redistricting, geographically contiguous redistricting.
Members of the Assembly are paid a base salary of $79,500 and regard it as a part time job, with many continuing as partners in for profit law firms and other businesses that often do business with the state or with persons interested in state legislation. I believe this is a full time wage and your legislators should work full time for you. When I am elected I will close my private law office and will not accept paid work while I am working for the people of New York.
BAN HYDRO-FRACKING
We need a ban on the dangerous practice of hydraulic fracking. The people of Onondaga County have good reason to be wary of the pie-in-the-sky promises of the gas companies. The last time big business with big promises came to exploit the natural resources of Central New York they transformed Onondaga Lake from a source of life into one of the most polluted waters in the world. Those corporations and their money are long gone and we are still cleaning up their mess.
You Can’t Drink Money
Fresh water is and always has been the number one natural resource of the Great Lakes Basin. Before modern refrigeration ice from Central New York was shipped every year as far as India. New York water is used to produce agricultural products, for recreation, for tourism, and even bottled and shipped around the world. Water is the resource the gas companies intend to pollute.
Each and every fracking well drilled will poison one to five million gallons of water just in the drilling process alone. There is currently no safe way to treat this waste, and attempts at storage have already resulted in spills in Pennsylvania that have poisoned more lands and waters. In addition the subsurface fractures caused by the process have resulted in poisoned ground water wells and gas leaks.
Lands on the shores of Skaneateles Lake have been leased for fracking. Skaneateles is the municipal water source for the City of Syracuse, a source that is currently so pure it does not require filtering. Fracking can turn Skaneateles into another Onondaga Lake, unfit to drink, unsafe to swim in.
Vote Green for a Clean Future
Only the Green Party has been consistently against hydrofracking, offshore drilling, and nuclear power. Each of these are not only highly polluting non-renewable energy sources but potential catastrophes. Onondaga Lake, Deep Water Horizon, Chernobyl.
We have a plan for locally produced, renewable, energy. We need windmills, solar panels, and renewable bio-fuels. The truth about fossil fuels is that eventually they will run out, it doesn’t matter if it is in twenty years, two years, or two hundred years, they will run out. We have to change to renewable resources anyway, why not now? There is nothing the American People cannot accomplish if they choose.
GAY RIGHTS ARE HUMAN RIGHTS
Homosexuals, Bisexuals, Gay, Lesbian, Transsexual, Transgender, Queer… it doesn’t matter what the label is: We will no longer accept being third class citizens. The right to marry, to have or adopt children, to employment and housing, to peaceful enjoyment of life, these rights taken for granted by many Americans have been too long denied to our community.
Legalize Marriage Now
Marriage is more than a symbolic recognition of common humanity; it is legal status that carries extensive rights in all aspects of the law, rights that are not attached to “civil unions”. “The freedom to marry has long been recognized as one of the vital personal rights essential to the orderly pursuit of happiness”,” Marriage is one of the basic civil rights of man, fundamental to our very existence and survival.”, “Under our Constitution, the freedom to marry, or not marry, a person … resides with the individual and cannot be infringed by the State. Loving v. Virginia, US Supreme Court (1967).
“’Separate but equal’ has no place. Separate … [is] inherently unequal.” Brown v. Board of Education, (1954) “At the heart of liberty is the right to define one's own concept of existence, of meaning, of the universe, and of the mystery of human life… Persons in a homosexual relationship may seek autonomy for these purposes, just as heterosexual persons do.” Lawrence v. Texas, (2003)
Vote Green for Equal Rights
As a bisexual Gay man I have been actively involved in this aspect of the civil rights movement since 1993. I have personally faced discrimination, violence, and arson. Only the Green Party has been consistently for GLBT rights. Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity rights have always been a key part of the Green Party Platform: In keeping with the Green Key Values of diversity, social justice and feminism, we support full legal and political equality for all persons, regardless of sex, gender, or sexual orientation.
a. The Green Party affirms the rights of all individuals to freely choose intimate partners, regardless of their sex, gender, or sexual orientation.
b. We support the recognition of equal rights of persons gay, lesbian, bisexual, or transgender to housing, jobs, civil marriage, medical benefits, child custody, and in all areas of life provided to all other citizens.
c. We support the inclusion of language in state and federal anti-discrimination law that ensures the rights of intersex individuals and prohibits discrimination based on gender identity, characteristics, and expression. We are opposed to intersex genital mutilation.
d. We support the right of all persons to self-determination with regard to gender identity and sex. We therefore support the right of intersex and transgender individuals to be free from coercion and involuntary assignment of gender or sex. We support access to medical and surgical treatment for assignment or reassignment of gender or sex, based on informed consent.
e. We support legislation against all forms of hate crimes, including those directed against people who identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual, queer, transgender, and intersex.
DONNELLY FOR ASSEMBLY
119th Assembly District Green Party
Green Party Candidate Enters Race for 119th Assembly District Syracuse, NY – Michael F. Donnelly, a local attorney, declared his candidacy today as the Green Party candidate for Assembly Member from the 119th District. Donnelly's candidacy will assure that there will be a competitive general election for the seat for which the Republicans have no declared candidate and three Democrats are competing for the nomination in a primary. The 119th Assembly District includes much of the south and east sides of Syracuse and the towns of Dewitt, Onondaga, and Salina, and the Onondaga Nation Territory.
Donnelly said, “We must always remember that in a democracy the government is not a thing apart from the people, it is of the people, by the people, and for the people. The Republicans and Democrats in Albany have forgotten their duty to the people of New York, with their petty squabbles over legislators’ personal privileges and which Party gets to bang the gavel they have turned New York government into a bad joke. The time has come to remind the corporate parties’ leadership that the people choose their representatives. There can be no more effective message than electing an independent.“
“The people of Syracuse have grown accustomed to Greens running just to raise issues and effect the debate. That time is over. In this year in this county I believe a Green can be elected. We can win, we intend to win, and we will win, but we need your help.”
Mike Donnelly is a graduate of Christian Brothers Academy, received a dual major Bachelor of Arts in Philosophy and English from Le Moyne College and his Doctor of Jurisprudence from Indiana University - Bloomington School of Law. He is admitted to practice in New York State and Federal District Court. He works as Assigned Counsel for the poor.
Before law school Mike Donnelly worked as a baker and delivery driver for The Dewitt Bagelry and in community and professional theatre, including seven years as the technical advisor for the Syracuse Hebrew Day School spring musical. Mike Donnelly is the son of Professor Samuel Donnelly Emeritus of Syracuse University College of Law and Doctor Mary Ann Donnelly Emeritus of Le Moyne College Business School. His family has been working for social justice in Syracuse for three generations, they have been involved with Jail Ministry, Legal Services, the Catholic Worker, and the Peace Movement.
Donnelly issued the following statement in making his announcement:
“Our Platform comes down to food, clothing, shelter, healthcare, education and employment. Everyone needs these things and everyone has to have a fair chance to earn them. Our Federal representatives made big promises in the last election, promise they have failed to follow through on. It is time for us to take action at the state level.
“We will be seeking universal single payer health care for all New Yorkers. Single payer is the best plan to ensure coverage of all citizens. The current plan of public coverage for the poor and private coverage for the rich and employer-based care sometimes provided for the working class leaves many without coverage and the Federal reforms have not changed that. Single payer is the most effective way to ensure that the money spent on health care will actually be spent on health care rather than lawyers, salesmen and paperwork.
“We need employment not unemployment benefits. Private sector jobs are best, but when the private sector cannot provide enough jobs, the people still need to work. We need to create Employment Offices where anyone who needs work can go to find a job that pays a living wage. If necessary we should reconstitute a state version of the Roosevelt-Era Works Progress Administration. I have in my life been out of work. I have received unemployment benefits. It is not good for a person to be without work, even if he is still receiving money. A person needs to feel that he is doing something worthwhile and earning the money he receives.
“We need to fully fund public education, the future of New York is high tech and knowledge based jobs, cutting education funding is sacrificing the future. We need to provide public funding for education from pre-k all the way through college and professional degrees. “We need to rebuild the physical infrastructure of the state, we need to rebuild the communications and transportation infrastructure of the state, we need to rebuild the energy infrastructure of the state with locally produced, green, renewable energy sources. “We need a ban on the dangerous practice of Hydrofracking. The people of Onondaga County have good reason to be wary of the pie-in-the-sky promises of the gas companies. The last time big business with big promises came here, they turned Onondaga Lake from a source of life to one of the most polluted waters in the world. The corporations and their money are long gone and we are still cleaning up the mess they left behind.
“The Criminal Justice system in New York is broken, Onondaga County is being sued for denials of fundamental rights of prisoners including the right to counsel and for failures to pay Assigned Counsel for work performed. We need among other reforms a statewide Public Defenders Office funded and administered from Albany to replace the current county by county hodge-podge of public defenders, legal aid societies, and assigned counsel. “And we need to pay the bills for all the work that needs to be done. New York’s current budget gap could be closed completely without increase the working people’s taxes. The State rebated $16 billion on the Stock Transfer Tax this past year, money that goes to swell bankers’ profits. The state cannot continue to operate on deficits aggravated by the legislator’s failure to pass an on time budget. Americans do not like taxes because Americans do not get much for their money. I propose to see to it that we receive value for our money.
“Lastly we need to reform the structure of government in Albany. Democratize legislative rules to empower rank-and-file legislators and legislative committees, eliminate member items and other patronage machine money that cements the power monopoly of legislative leaders. We need nonpartisan redistricting, geographically contiguous redistricting, the 119th District map looks like a big lizard is eating the south side of Syracuse.
“Members of the Assembly are paid a base salary of $79,500 and regard it as a part time job, with many continuing as partners in for profit law firms and other businesses that often do business with the state or with persons interested in state legislation. I believe $80,000 is a full time wage and your legislators should work full time for you. When I am elected I will close my private law office and will not accept paid work while I am working for the people of New York.” Donnelly needs 1500 signatures during independent nomination petitioning period of July 6 to August 17 to secure a Green line on the ballot for his candidacy. Any registered voter in the 119th Assembly District from any party or no party can sign unless they already signed for a party candidate during the earlier June-July party designation petitioning period.
Greens are running several candidates for state assembly and senate across New York and a slate of statewide candidates, including Howie Hawkins of Syracuse for Governor.
