Cuomo Rival Endorses Green Party’s Howie Hawkins for Governor

Political satirist Randy Credico, who finished a distant third in last Tuesday’s Democratic gubernatorial primary in New York, has thrown his support to the Green Party’s Howie Hawkins in the general election.

Credico, who unofficially garnered 19,045 votes — or slightly less than four percent of the total — against Gov. Andrew Cuomo in Tuesday’s primary, said that he was endorsing the Green Party candidate because he and Hawkins share many of the same progressive values.

“We are on the same page politically,” said Credico, a longtime critic of state’s infamous Rockefeller drug laws who campaigned in the Democratic primary on a platform calling for a $15 per hour minimum wage, Medicare-for-All, free SUNY and CUNY tuition, legalization of marijuana, a state-owned bank, and lower subway fares and bridge and tunnel tolls — all of which are issues long championed by the Green Party nominee.

Like Hawkins, Credico — billing himself as “the most progressive candidate since Franklin D. Roosevelt” — also promised to stop rebating New York’s Stock Transfer Tax, which could add an additional $12 to $16 billion annually to the state’s coffers.

In an interview with City & State, Credico said that supporting Hawkins was a great way for New Yorkers to send a message to the increasingly stale Working Families Party, which in early June narrowly endorsed Cuomo’s reelection bid against a spirited, last-minute challenge from Zephyr Teachout, a 42-year-old Fordham law professor.

Credico described the Democratic Party as “a dead rabbit.”

The Green Party’s Hawkins welcomed Randy Credico’s support.

In announcing his endorsement, Credico prodded Teachout to join him in supporting the Green Party nominee, a longtime veteran of progressive third-party politics.

“If Zephyr Teachout isn’t a fake out, if she has any integrity at all and is truly progressive, then she will join me in endorsing Howie,” said Credico, who rarely minces words.

With more than 99 percent of the state’s 12,989 precincts reporting, Teachout — waging her first campaign for public office — far exceeded most expectations by garnering more than 182,000 votes, or 33 percent, in Tuesday’s Democratic gubernatorial primary.

The 61-year-old Hawkins welcomed Credico’s endorsement. “I am the only progressive choice left on the ballot in November,” he told a reporter, “and I am going to work hard to earn the support of the voters who cast their ballots for Randy and Zephyr in the Democratic primary.”