Photo: Will Bredderman, New York Observer
The New York Observer’s Will Bredderman reports that comedian and political gadfly Randy Credico, who finished third in the recent Democratic gubernatorial primary, campaigned yesterday at the corner of 125th Street and Lexington Avenue in Manhattan with the Green Party’s Howie Hawkins.
Credico, one of the city’s most colorful political figures, endorsed Hawkins’ insurgent candidacy for governor late last week.
The two greeted voters in the predominantly African-American and Hispanic neighborhood — a traditional Democratic stronghold — searching for support for the Green Party candidate’s long-shot bid to unseat Democratic Gov. Andrew Cuomo.
According to Bredderman, Credico — in contrast to the more reserved Green Party candidate — campaigned like a man on a mission, aggressively approaching passersby, handing them leaflets, and enthusiastically urging them to support Hawkins in November.
“Howie Hawkins for governor! Jobs not jails!,” the political satirist yelled over and over again.
Like many New Yorkers, Credico believes it’s time for a change. It’s time to shake up the corrupt, two-party establishment in Albany.
Hawkins thinks so, too, which is precisely why he took his no-frills, no-nonsense, issues-oriented campaign to badly-neglected Harlem yesterday.
“It’s a good place to meet voters, it’s not like upstate rural New York,” said Hawkins, who hails from Syracuse. He said the voters in Harlem were being taken for granted by the Democrats and were virtually ignored by the Republicans.
The Dartmouth-educated Hawkins, a former Marine and working stiff who unloads trucks for UPS when he’s not fighting for economic and social justice, has been polling seven percent of the vote in recent polls — an impressive number for a third-party candidate — but realizes he still faces an uphill battle against the Wall Street-funded Democratic incumbent.
A lifelong third-party activist and veteran of Dr. Benjamin Spock’s 1972 presidential campaign on the long-forgotten People’s Party ticket, the 61-year-old Hawkins is hoping New York’s 125th Street and Lexington Avenue — a familiar spot picked out by Credico — proves to be his lucky corner, just as 116th Street and Lexington Avenue proved to be the late Fiorello H. La Guardia’s “Lucky Corner” during his long and colorful political career.
Like Hawkins, the fiery and energetic La Guardia was an extraordinary fighter for downtrodden and forgotten New Yorkers — a progressive in every sense of the word.
It was at that intersection in East Harlem that the colorful former congressman and Depression-era mayor — the “Little Flower,” as he was affectionately dubbed — would conclude each of his many campaigns for public office.
La Guardia, coincidentally, died in his sleep on this day in 1947.
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