Howie wants to win

Syracuse City Eagle
Walt Shepperd
2009 July 20th

Much of last weekend's first annual Dancestravaganza will be reprised in the Thornden Park Amphitheater Sunday, August 2 at 1 p.m. as the Media Unit encourages the general public to bring lawn chairs or sit on the grass or in the stone bleachers for a free performance of this summer's musical theater tour of Angels with Broken Wings: the Loss. Also performing for the occasion will be the Johnson School of Irish Dancing and the Southwest Community Center Eradication Squad Drill Team, with guest vocalists.

Look for Howie Hawkins, who may not be singing or dancing, but may be working the crowd for signatures to get on the November ballot as Green Party candidate for the 4th District seat on the Common Council. Long a practitioner of purist politics, using campaigns to raise issues like Living Wage and Public Power, Hawkins is in this one to win.

Noting that every politician seems to be running "green" these days, Hawkins observes that his party is not hearing the candidates articulate concrete policies and reforms needed to paint the city emerald. As the Greens' sole candidate, Hawkins feels he can raise those issues and pile up enough votes to win the seat given the makeup of the district: Downtown, University Hill, middle- and working-class neighborhoods on the East and South Sides. The registration is two-thirds Democratic, and the seat is occupied by three-term incumbent Democrat Tom Seals, who draws significant support from the Working Families Party. Hawkins hopes that support can be blunted by splits in the current labor movement.