2014 Governor's race: Howie Hawkins

Howie Hawkins

Green party

2010 Candidate for governor

active in the anti-aparthied divestment movement in the 1970's and 80's

Socialist party member

2005 candidate for Syracuse mayor

wants a $15 minimum wage

wants education available in all prisons:
http://cnyvision.com/fullstory/fullstory.php?id=1810

In that same article, he also states he wants to end the practice of SUNY using criminal history to screen applicants

he also states he wants to reduce the prison population and reduce prisons in NY, and is a proponent of ending the failed war on drugs:

“We need to reduce the number of prisoners in New York. The biggest reform to do that would be to end the war on drugs that has targeted community of color and resulted in people of color comprising three-quarters of the prison population. Drug abuse should be treated as a medical problem, not a criminal problem. Drug treatment on demand should be part of a public single-payer health plan providing full medical services to all New Yorkers. Drugs should be legalized, regulated, and taxed, starting with marijuana,” Hawkins said.

On taxes:

"A better way to cut property taxes would be for the state to pay for its mandates and let us, through our local governments, decide how much to cut property taxes and how much to fund our schools and services,"

Source: syracuse.com

Interesting guy, I rather like his take on property taxes, but overall to far left for my tastes

2014 Governor's race: Chris Edes

Chris Edes, Libertarian Party

State chair in 2009

Founder and chair of the Greater Rochester Libertarian party

Candidate for Senator in 2012

His site is not entirely clear on all of his ideas, other than that he has ideas.

Some he does mention:
 ending corporate welfare
 cutting personal income taxes in half, ending the use tax
 dropping the drinking age to 18: "If young adults can be trusted to fight and die in combat, they can be trusted to drink responsibly."

 He also states
"Fraud should be prosecuted as it is an act of aggression. When fraudulent actions threaten the stability of the free market, they should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. Exceptions cannot be made for persons or corporate entities which have political influence or are “too big to fail”. The only thing we should consider “too big to fail” is the American people.
If the federal government will not hold Wall Street accountable, then New York State must do so."

Interview from his 2012 Senate campaign, I include it because it gives pretty good insight into his views, he seems very articulate and knowledgeable.




Personally, of the 3 Libertarians running, I like him the best, they are all 3 interesting, but my personal choice of the 3 is this guy.

Speaking of the 2012 race, his campaign raised around $2000, and spent around $700 of that, and he still managed 28,000 votes.  For a third party candidate, thats saying something.

2014 NYS Governor's race: Nate Lebron

(I could not find a website for this candidate, if you know of one, please let me know so I can add it here)

Libertarian

Candidate for mayor in Albany in 2009, as well as candidate (sort of) for Albany county executive in 2011

plans to focus on opposing the safe act, opposing common core, reducing government waste, and focusing government economic efforts on small, local business instead of corporate welfare.

Interesting ideas, I particularly like the last one, I'll be keeping my eye on this guy if he survives April....

Times Union article

Sidenote: you would think a guy with a masters in IT from Harvard who owns his own tech consulting firm would bother to have a website?

2014 NYS Governor's race: Richard Cooper

Richard Cooper, Libertarian party

Former state chair of the Libertarian party

Strong opponent of eminent domain abuses, including an (unsuccessful) campaign to save St. Luke's Pentecostal Church in New Cassel, Long Island.

He would end the corrupt Empire State Development Corporation

He favors repealing the SAFE act, and goes even further, advocating repeal of the sullivan act

He proposes having the board of Regents appointed by the governor, this to me, while I understand his intent, has problems in and of itself.  We see how easy it is in NY to fire a governor we don't like.  Perhaps make it elected positions, but regional, rather than statewide, to allow for more local control.

He opposes Common Core, and has some interesting ideas about election reform

http://www.antonnews.com/features/36868-the-local-man-who-would-be-the-governor.html

All in all, some interesting ideas, I'd be interested to see him in a debate with Coumo and Astorino, but, well, that probably won't happen, and thats a shame



**********************************************************************************

2014 NYS governors race: Rob Astorino

Rob Astorino

Westchester county legislator, 2003-2005

Westchester county executive 2009-

Ran for the executive on a platform to cut spending and lower taxes, Weschester county at the time being one of the highest taxed in the country

He has dropped the property tax levy 2%, and has not increased it for the last 4 years,

however, he has recently claimed that he " cut the county property tax levy more than any county in New York."

yet, as TWC news points out:

“In fact, while Astorino did reduce the tax levy in Westchester by $12 million, Onondaga County cut its tax levy by more than $38 million.”

In response, he states “we are going in the right direction, that's the point” true, but doesn't really address his blurring of the numbers

He has stood strong against the federal housing department trying to force the county to change zoning to allow for low income housing, stating :

“This is a federalism issue,” says Astorino. If the Department of Housing and Urban Development “is permitted to wander into Westchester County and basically blow away local zoning and seize control over [housing] issues,” he tells me, “then it can and will [do that] everywhere.”

Source: Weekly Standard

Agree with him on the issue or not, I do agree on the federalism point...

From what I have been able to find on him, he does seem to have a solid fiscal background, and he seems to be pretty solidly pro 2^nd amendment.

He seems to be pretty solidly pro fracking, an issue that I am on the fence on, but worth mentioning

I have my doubts about him as governor, to me, but he's a no brainer better choice than Coumo on gun rights alone.

I think the best vote for Upstate NY is a vote to separate from downstate and the city, short of that, voting for Astorino wouldn't be the worst choice, I'm considering it, but not on board yet.

Yes, I want someone besides Coumo, but I'd rather vote for a candidate than against one, and, while there are parts of Astorino's campaign I like, I'm not on the bandwagon just yet

(personal pet peeve, his site loads to a landing page with an autostarting campaign video, you have to click through to get to his actual page, otherwise I rather like his website)