Hawkins: Old ideas won't work
Monday, October 24, 2005
SEAN KIRST
POST-STANDARD COLUMNIST
Mayor Matt Driscoll and Joanie Mahoney got into a feud last week about which candidate accepted more campaign money from executives with Destiny USA, and who's been more honest about when and how it was obtained.
Howie Hawkins, Green Party candidate for mayor, said the dispute between the Democratic incumbent and his Republican challenger hardly matters. "We're not in trouble because of bad character," he said. "We're in trouble because of bad policy."
For many years, he said, the same issues have dominated elections in all big Upstate cities: Street violence and poverty. Fractured budgets. Embattled schools.
Major-party candidates, Hawkins insists, invariably respond by tinkering with some version of the same failed solutions. "They argue about managing the status quo," Hawkins said. "I'm talking about changing the status quo."
Ralph Nader once described Hawkins as "the most unwavering progressive" in New York, both a monumental compliment and a liability. In Syracuse, mainstream politicians like to admire Hawkins publicly, but they whisper he's a dreamer whose ideas wouldn't work.
Hawkins responds with a simple question: What's working so well now?
"The problem has always been elite planning," said Hawkins, 52. "You get powerful interests that feather their own nests, and the interests of the regular people are neglected. They get screwed."
After running without luck many times for public office, he finds himself in an unusually influential place. A recent Post-Standard poll found the race between Mahoney and Driscoll too
© 2005 The Post-Standard. Used with permission.
Posted by syracusegreens at October 24, 2005 03:00 AM