On October 30, Lou Allstadt, a prominent opponent of fracking, endorsed Howie Hawkins, the Green Party nominee for Governor of New York. See this story about the endorsement, and this article about Allstadt. Allstadt is a former executive vice-president of Mobil Oil and a resident of Cooperstown, New York. Although he is an independent, as the article says, he was elected to local partisan office as the Democratic nominee.

The Democratic nominee for Governor of New York, Andrew Cuomo, says he won’t decide his policy on fracking until more is known. Hawkins is against fracking. The New York gubernatorial race is one example of many that shows the value of minor party and independent candidate activity. If New York state had a top-two system, the only candidates on the November ballot would be Rob Astorino and Andrew Cuomo, and it wouldn’t be possible for anti-fracking voters to cast a vote that communicates their belief.