Credico Backs Hawkins For Governor, Prods Teachout To Follow Suit

Though Zephyr Teachout has not yet announced who she will endorse in the general election for governor—if anyone—her other opponent in the Democratic primary, activist and comedian Randy Credico, has thrown his support behind Green Party nominee Howie Hawkins. Credico, who with 99.6 percent of precincts reporting, received 19,045 votes statewide—or 3.6 percent of the vote—told City & State that he is endorsing Hawkins because, “[Gov. Andrew] Cuomo is conservative, Hawkins is progressive. We are on the same page politically. Voting for Howie is a great opportunity to move a progressive party past the stale WFP and the Democratic Party, which is a dead rabbit.”

Credico also prodded his erstwhile primary rival to back Hawkins, saying, “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.”

Contacted by telephone, Hawkins said, “I welcome Randy’s endorsement. I respect him for the work that he’s done on drug reform over the years and it’s an issue I want to carry forward into the election. I am the only progressive choice left on the ballot in November, 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.”

Hawkins, who polled at 12 percent against Cuomo and GOP nominee Rob Astorino in a Time Warner Cable News/Siena College survey of two upstate congressional districts released on Sept. 11, also made the point that “by any objective standard” he deserves to participate in a debate with the major party candidates. Cuomo, who declined to debate Teachout and Credico in the primary, said on Thursday that “I believe we’ll have debates” in the general election, though he did not specify whether he would consent to including third party candidates in them, as he did in 2010, when he and the Republican nominee, Carl Paladino, faced off against the Green Party’s Hawkins, then New York City Councilman Charles Barron, the Libertarian Party’s Warren Redlich, the Rent Is Too Damn High Party’s candidate Jimmy McMillan, and the “Manhattan Madam”, Kristin Davis.