Colorado State Legislative Election 2018 Political Courage Test

Abortion & Reproductive

1. Do you generally support pro-choice or pro-life legislation?
- Pro-choice

2. Should abortion be legal when the pregnancy resulted from incest or rape?
- Yes

3. Do you support the prohibition of public funds for organizations that perform abortions?
- No

4. Other or expanded principles
- No Answer

Budget, Spending, & Tax

1. Reducing state employee salaries AND/OR pensions?
- No

2. Instituting mandatory furloughs AND/OR layoffs for state employees?
- No

3. Reducing benefits for Medicaid recipients?
- No

4. An income tax increase on any tax bracket?
- No

5. Other or expanded principles
- a) We are struggling to retain qualified personnel. b) See A. c) We are paying below break even and have severe provider shortage areas as well as 15 counties with 0 dentists that will see Medicaid patients already. d) TABOR means I constitutionally can't raise taxes. We've been spreading the pain out evenly for decades and now every department is starving. I'm focusing on voter outreach to support new funding with props 110, 73, 5A, and 5B.

Campaign Finance & Government Reform

1. Do you support any limits on campaign contributions to state candidates?
- Yes

2. Do you support the regulation of indirect campaign contributions from corporations and unions?
- Yes

3. Do you support the use of an independent AND/OR bipartisan commission for redistricting?
- Yes

4. Do you support requiring a government-issued photo identification in order to vote at the polls?
- No

5. Other or expanded principles
- In Colorado we have mail in ballots. I know several individuals who claim they "get two votes" because they fill in their spouse's ballot. I would like to see some system for someone who is facing voter intimidation from their spouse to request an new ballot at a polling place that will override the one their spouse filled out. There should be no criminal prosecution for this because that will make people unwilling to report. Photo ID should be needed to override.

Crime & Public Safety

1. Do you support capital punishment for certain crimes?
- No

2. Do you support the legalization of marijuana for recreational purposes?
- Yes

3. Should a minor accused of a violent crime be prosecuted as an adult?
- No

4. Do you support the enforcement of federal immigration laws by state and local police?
- No

5. Other or expanded principles
- A local resident should never be unwilling to report a crime to the local police for fear of deportation. Cities didn't stop doing that as a political statement, they did it as a matter of public safety.

Economic

1. Do you support state government spending as a means of promoting economic growth?
- Yes

2. Do you support lowering state taxes as a means of promoting economic growth?
- Yes

3. Do you support reducing state government regulations on the private sector?
- No Answer

4. Do you support expanding access to unemployment benefits?
- Yes

5. Do you support requiring welfare applicants to pass a drug test in order to receive benefits?
- No

6. Do you support an increase of the minimum wage of Colorado?
- No Answer

7. Do you support increasing state funding for improving Colorado's roads and bridges?
- No Answer

8. Other or expanded principles
- My support of more road funding is irrelevant if TABOR won't let me act on it. I support a higher min wage in Denver but that might not be appropriate for rural areas. I support good regulation of the private sector. That can be more or less. Worshipping more or less as a value unto themselves is foolish.

Education

1. Do you support adopting federal education standards in Colorado?
- No Answer

2. Do you support state funding for charter schools?
- Yes

3. Should immigrants unlawfully present in the United States who graduate from Colorado high schools be eligible for in-state tuition at public universities?
- Yes

4. Other or expanded principles
- I think we have far to many charter schools and several charters should be revoked. But the concept itself has a place and charter schools are public schools. Their finances are now required to be shared with the public and diverting funds from instruction to a profit center would be grounds for revocation. About 3% of Colorado charters use a for profit management company currently. The overhead to check citizenship in applications would either be ineffective or cost more than it saves. Our funds are to constricted to waste in this manner. See TABOR.

Environment & Energy

1. Do you support state funding for the development of renewable energy (e.g. solar, wind, thermal)?
- Yes

2. Do you support state government regulations of greenhouse gas emissions?
- Yes

3. Do you support increasing state funding for clean drinking water initiatives?
- No Answer

4. Do you support increased regulations on the hydraulic fracturing ("fracking") industry?
- No Answer

5. Other or expanded principles
- Our water is pretty good. If we have quality problems then increase funding. The safety regulations I support (such as telling the state where the underground pipelines are) don't care whether the gas came from a fracked or un-fracked well. That question makes it sound like I'd be OK with unreported feeder lines so long as they came from a non-fracking well.

Gun

1. Do you generally support gun-control legislation?
- Yes

2. Should background checks be required on gun sales between private citizens at gun shows?
- Yes

3. Should teachers be allowed to bring guns into the classroom?
- No

4. Should a license be required for gun ownership?
- Yes

5. Other or expanded principles
- I understand concerns about a registry - but what, exactly, do you think the NRA membership database is? I oppose a gun ban, but going for the activist group membership rolls is an obvious first step in any confiscation effort. It wouldn't take much effort to write a bot that scans social media for pictures of guns either. You prevent a gun ban by keeping guns out of the hands of untrained or malicious people who misuse them. Licenses would help with that a lot.

Health

1. Should the state government increase funding for treatment facilities to combat opioid abuse?
- No Answer

2. Do you support Medicaid expansion through Colorado's health care programs?
- Yes

3. Do you support requiring individuals to purchase health care insurance?
- Yes

4. Do you support legislation that grants citizens the right to choose to die through euthanasia?
- Yes

5. Do you support eliminating religious exemptions for vaccinations?
- No Answer

6. Other or expanded principles
- a) TABOR! I can answer that question only after you tell me what is being cut to fund it. e) It depends on the disease and wether the vaccine is age sensitive. I'd create a class of exempt and non-exempt vaccines.

Social

1. Do you support the inclusion of sexual orientation in Colorado's anti-discrimination laws?
- Yes

2. Do you support the inclusion of gender identity in Colorado's anti-discrimination laws?
- Yes

3. Do you support greater efforts by Colorado state government in closing the pay gap between men and women?
- Yes

4. Other or expanded principles
- Two words: Parental Leave.

Legislative Priorities

In the following area, please explain in a total of 100 words or less, your top two or three priorities if elected. If they require additional funding for implementation, please explain how you would obtain this funding.
- My first focus is leveraging my background in writing prescription drug claims processing software to pass a Rx pricing transparency bill that would actually work and is non-burdensome on the companies to implement (they won't want to, but thats a different issue than it being technically difficult). After that I want to work on the backlog of legislative bug fixes. Basic, boring, bills that get left in Limbo while the partisan idealogical stuff eats up the session.