Massachusetts State Legislative Election 2016 Political Courage Test

Abortion & Reproductive

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

2. Should abortions be illegal after the first trimester of pregnancy?
- No

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

4. Should abortion be legal when the life of the woman is endangered?
- Yes

5. Do you support requiring parental notification before an abortion is performed on a minor?
- No

6. Do you support requiring parental consent before an abortion is performed on a minor?
- No

7. Do you support the prohibition of public funds for abortion procedures?
- No

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

9. Other or expanded principles
- I see the decision to have an abortion or not as being based on a person's belief of when life begins, which is a religious belief and therefore may not be legislated.

Budget, Spending, & Tax

1. Tapping into Massachusetts's "rainy day" fund
- No

2. Decreasing funding for public universities
- No

3. Reducing state employee salaries AND/OR pensions
- No

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

5. Reducing benefits for Medicaid recipients
- No

6. Other or expanded principles
- To a small extent there are opportunities to combine or streamline existing state programs/agencies, but not in ways that will add up to significant amounts of savings without damaging the service people receive.

1. Education (higher)
- Greatly Increase

2. Education (K-12)
- Greatly Increase

3. Environment
- Greatly Increase

4. Health care
- Slightly Decrease

5. Law enforcement/corrections
- Maintain Status

6. Transportation/infrastructure
- Slightly Increase

7. Welfare
- Maintain Status

8. Other or expanded categories
- I say to decrease healthcare spending because I support shifting to a single-payer healthcare system, which would reduce overall costs to the state, businesses, and individuals.I favor slight increases to funding for environmental agencies in the state, but put "Greatly Increase" for that one because it is the closest category to one area that I support major new investment in, which is the development of clean energy technologies and manufacturing industry in MA.

1. Alcohol taxes
- Maintain Status

2. Cigarette taxes
- Slightly Increase

3. Corporate taxes
- Maintain Status

4. Small business taxes
- Slightly Decrease

5. Gas/Oil taxes
- Slightly Increase

6. Property taxes
- Eliminate

7. Sales taxes
- Maintain Status

8. Income taxes (low-income families)
- Greatly Decrease

9. Income taxes (mid-income families)
- Slightly Increase

10. Income taxes (high-income families)
- Greatly Increase

11. Do you support applying sales taxes to all online purchases?
- Yes

12. Other or expanded principles
- I support shifting education funding to the state level, reducing or eliminating property taxes in the process, and increasing the income tax. I also support the Fair Share Amendment which would increase the income tax only on income over $1 million/year, and fund education and infrastructure.I also support reversing some of the tax cuts made in recent decades, especially the cut to dividends+interest tax, which could be restored without harming most low-to-middle-income families at all.

Campaign Finance & Government Reform

1. Individual
- Yes

2. Political Action Committee
- Yes

3. Corporate
- Yes

4. Political Party
- Yes

5. Should candidates for state office be encouraged to meet voluntary spending limits?
- Yes

6. Do you support requiring full and timely disclosure of campaign finance information?
- Yes

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

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

1. Other or expanded principles
- I support publicly-financed campaigns and other measures that would make running for office more accessible for low-income leaders.I also strongly support a shift to proportional-representation, instant-runoff ranked voting systems for all state offices and for U.S. House seats. This would reduce the partisan polarization we see in current politics and more accurately represent voters' preferences.

Crime & Public Safety

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

2. Do you support alternatives to incarceration for certain non-violent offenders, such as mandatory counseling or substance abuse treatment?
- Yes

3. Do you support legalizing the possession of small amounts of marijuana?
- No

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

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

6. Do you support delaying the seizure of assets by law enforcement officials until after a conviction?
- Yes

7. Do you support additional funding for programs intended to reduce drug addiction in Massachusetts?
- Yes

8. Other or expanded principles
- No Answer

Economic

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

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

3. Do you support reducing government regulations on the private sector?
- Yes

4. Do you support increased state funding for job-training programs that re-train displaced workers?
- Yes

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

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

7. Do you support providing financial incentives to the private sector for the purpose of job creation?
- Yes

8. Do you support providing direct financial assistance to homeowners facing foreclosure?
- Yes

9. Do you support an increase of the minimum wage?
- Yes

10. Should employers be able to ask about applicants' criminal history before interviewing them?
- Yes

11. Other or expanded principles
- My answer to almost all of these would really be "in at least some cases." Sometimes each of these are helpful, sometimes they could be harmful.

Education

1. Do you support the national Common Core State Standards initiative?
- Yes

2. Do you support a merit pay system for teachers?
- No

3. Is the tenure process for public school teachers producing effective teachers?
- Yes

4. Should parents be allowed to use vouchers to send their children to any school?
- No

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

6. Do you support the state government providing college students with financial aid?
- Yes

7. Should illegal immigrants who graduate from Massachusetts high schools be eligible for in-state tuition at public universities?
- Yes

8. Other or expanded principles
- On Common Core, the problem is not the standards themselves but the way we have implemented them, which has tied the hands of teachers and principals and reduced innovation and creativity in teaching.On Tenure and Merit Pay there could certainly be improvements, but I say no to merit pay if it is based on current standardized tests, because that will only compound the problems of teaching to the test and judging teachers based on partial, not holistic, information.I support the state fully-funding Commonwealth charter schools, and districts not paying any money to charter schools.

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 funding for the development of traditional domestic energy sources (e.g. coal, natural gas, oil)?
- No

3. Do you support state funding for improvements to Massachusetts's energy infrastructure?
- Yes

4. Do you support state funding for open space preservation?
- Yes

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

6. Do you support increased regulations of the hydraulic fracturing ("fracking") industry?
- Yes

7. Other or expanded principles
- Climate change is the most urgent issue of our time. I support projects along the line of the Apollo Program, Human Genome Project, DARPA, etc to develop breakthrough technologies. I especially support such development and demonstration projects for post-Lithium-Ion battery technologies and other energy storage technologies, which could be the key component in a transition to clean energy.I also support the development of Advanced Atomic power, which can dispose of our current nuclear waste while generating clean electricity.

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 citizens be allowed to carry concealed guns?
- Yes

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

5. Other or expanded principles
- I fully support the rights of people to own guns and use them for hunting and sportsmanship. I see storage plans as one of the key next steps, because a huge percent of gun deaths are suicides by people using a family member's (usually a parent's) gun which is insecurely stored in the home.

Health

1. Do you support a universally-accessible, publicly-administered health insurance option?
- Yes

2. Do you support expanding access to health care through commercial health insurance reform?
- Yes

3. Do you support interstate health insurance compacts?
- No

4. Do you support Medicaid expansion under the Affordable Care Act ("Obamacare")?
- Yes

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

6. Do you support monetary limits on damages that can be collected in malpractice lawsuits?
- Yes

7. Do you support allowing doctors to prescribe marijuana to their patients for medicinal purposes?
- Yes

8. Other or expanded principles
- On interstate compacts - maybe, depending on the plan. I support single-payer at either the state or national level, and in the short term would like to see the regulatory issues around Obamacare be fixed, without scrapping the several important advances Obamacare made.

Social

1. Do you support same-sex marriage?
- Yes

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

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

4. Other or expanded principles
- We also need to do a better job of including all genders, sexualities, and romantic identities in school curricula, especially sex ed curricula.

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 top priorities are developing revolutionary clean energy technologies that can be patented and manufactured in Massachusetts and sold around the world, and investing in our public schools at the pre-K-12 and higher ed levels.I support a concerted, coordinated effort to test promising battery technologies, work with basic researchers, and develop and prove technologies that can then be commercialized by in-state companies.I support implementing the Foundation Budget Review Commission's healthcare and special education recommendations to increase Chapter 70 aid, and increasing investment in public colleges.To fund these I support reversing the tax cut on dividends and interest.