ALBANY, NY  03/29/20 — The Green Party of New York today blasted the reported plan of Gov. Andrew Cuomo to put higher ballot access thresholds for third parties into the state budget.

"Cuomo wants to rule without challenge from his left by the Green Party. He wants to sneak higher ballot access requirements designed to kill third parties in New York while the public is preoccupied with the coronavirus crisis," said Howie Hawkins, who received 4.8% of the vote as the Green candidate for governor in 2014.

ALBANY NY – 03/13/20 – The New York State Green and Libertarian Parties applaud the State Supreme Court ruling that stopped the Democratic Party's attempt to assassinate smaller political parties.

Justice Ralph Boniello Thursday tossed out the law establishing a commission purportedly set up to create a system of publicly financed campaigns, but instead deviated into attacks on third party and independent candidates. The Judge ruled that the measure creating the panel was "an improper and unconstitutional delegation of legislative authority."

NEW YORK, NY (WCBS 880) — There's an unlikely alliance between the Libertarian and the Green Parties in New York State, both fighting new rules they think might box them out of future elections.

It's not often you see leaders of the Libertarian Party and the Green Party sharing a podium, but that’s exactly what happened recently, according to WCBS 880’s Steve Burns.

ALBANY. NY – The Green Party of New York and Libertarian Party of New York will hold a joint press conference to discuss their next steps in challenging the unjust ballot access thresholds implemented by the Public Campaign Finance Commission. Green speakers will include Mark Dunlea, former Comptroller candidate, and Peter LaVenia, state party co-chair. Libertarian speakers will include James Rosenbeck, party chair.

To the Editor: The "Democrats' Secret Plan to Kill Third Parties in New York," as the headline on an Oct. 29 New York Times report put it, is no longer secret.

On Monday, Nov. 25, 2019, the Public Campaign Financing Commission voted to raise the vote threshold to secure a party ballot line from 50,000 to the higher of 130,000 or 2% every two years in gubernatorial and presidential years, instead of every four years in gubernatorial elections. They also tripled the petition signatures required to put an independent candidate for statewide office to 45,000.

ALBANY, NY – 11/26/19 - Green Party of New York leaders said Gov. Cuomo's comments at a press conference today, in which he stated third parties needed to prove their viability before receiving public funding, are not just wrongheaded, but dangerously undemocratic. Officers said that the exact opposite should be true: public campaign financing should aid third parties and candidates in becoming viable. By placing nearly insurmountable barriers to entry to the ballot and public campaign financing Cuomo and the Commissioners expect third parties to run a marathon with a weight attached to their legs, while Democrats and Republicans are driven to the finish line in limos.

ALBANY, NY 11/25/2019 — Green Party of New York officials said today the Public Campaign Finance Commission's decision to raise ballot access thresholds to 2% of the vote or 130,000 votes (whichever is greater) for presidential and gubernatorial elections was an anti-democratic decision that would limit voter choice in New York.

ALBANY, NY 11/20/2019 — Green Party of New York (GPNY) officers said today the Public Campaign Finance Commission is making a mockery of democracy, and it appears their secret plan all along has been a bipartisan effort to eliminate third parties and real competition from New York State politics.

The creation of the Public Campaign Financing Commission has been a rare chance for New Yorkers to have a robust discussion on how to eliminate very wealthy people’s disproportionate influence on politics and expand democratic choice. Unfortunately, recent statements by Gov. Cuomo, his appointee Jay Jacobs and former Gov. David Paterson show the commission has perversely become a cudgel with which to attack smaller parties while defending major parties and incumbents.

The concerns raised by all three men are broadly similar: Public financing is expensive, fusion will increase the expense, it is too easy to become a ballot-status party and more groups will aim to do so in order to receive public campaign funds; thus, the threshold for access to funds must be high and requirements to become a party must be raised in order to weed out most third parties.

ALBANY, NY, October 29, 2019 — Green Party of New York officers said that the plan floated by Campaign Finance Commission co-chair Jay Jacobs to raise the minimum vote total for ballot access to roughly 250,000 votes was an unacceptable attack on real third parties in New York. Party officers said the Commission should instead ban fusion and make ballot access for third parties easier, including allowing any statewide office vote totals to qualify a party. (See NY Times article.)