“We make no apologies for progressive taxation and a revitalized public sector.” -- Howie Hawkins

One could argue that the most energetic opposition to the Democratic candidates for Syracuse City offices this November is coming from a third party, the Greens.  In this edition of the Campbell Conversations, Grant Reeher speaks to the Green Party candidates for mayor, city council, and board of education, and explores their collective vision for a new set of city policies and a new way of governance. Listen to the interview on WRVO's Campbell Conversations hosted by Grant Reeher.

"Nobody in the city - and they're all Democrats - seems to want to speak up to Cuomo,'' Hawkins said. "I'm independent. The Democrats can't do anything to me. I'm free to say what needs to be said.''

Before he was even old enough to vote, Howie Hawkins was a political activist.

Because the co-op is not out to make a profit, anything that does not go to the cost of operating the store will be given back to members as a patronage refund, Hawkins said. The money will be redistributed in proportion to the amount of money customers spend on groceries. The more often a member shops, the more money he or she receives at the end of the year. “It’s like getting your tax refund,” Hawkins said.

"What Congress should have done instead is make health care a right with a single payer Medicare-for-All program," Hawkins said in a statement. "But to now cut off essential services, lay off close to a million workers, and blow off the economic consequences is unforgivable."

Howie Hawkins, the Green Party opponent of Maffei in 2008, said, “The current Democratic-Republican squabble is a classic version of their good cop/bad cop game. It deflects attention from the reality that both parties share a bipartisan consensus of lavishing tax cuts on the wealthy and blank checks to the Pentagon for wars abroad for oil and corporate wealth. Then they use the resulting budget deficits to justify austerity budgets that cut the domestic social, economic, and environmental programs that benefit working class and middle class people."

Video at http://www.cnycentral.com/news/story.aspx?id=950836#.Uoly06XGB-1

Democratic Mayor Miner ducking debates. Green organizers registering voters.

Video at http://centralny.ynn.com/content/news/697710/green-party-hoping-to-make-their-mark-in-syracuse-mayoral-race/

To draw attention to their voter registration drive, Green Party members will be pedaling the party's industrial scale tricycle hauler decked out with campaign placards.

Votes for Green Party candidates are no longer just send-them-a-message votes. The Green candidates are viable contenders.