Alaska State Legislative Election 2004 National Political Awareness Test

Abortion

1. Abortions should always be illegal.
- No Answer

2. Abortions should always be legal.
- No Answer

3. Abortions should be legal only within the first trimester of pregnancy.
- No Answer

4. Abortions should be legal when the pregnancy resulted from incest or rape.
- No Answer

5. Abortions should be legal when the life of the woman is endangered.
- No Answer

6. Prohibit public funding of abortions and of organizations that advocate or perform abortions.
- No Answer

7. Other or expanded principles
- No Answer

Budget, Spending, and Tax

1. Education (higher)
- Maintain Status

2. Education (K-12)
- Slightly Increase

3. Environment
- Maintain Status

4. Health care
- Maintain Status

5. Law enforcement
- Slightly Increase

6. Transportation and highway infrastructure
- Slightly Increase

7. Welfare
- Maintain Status

8. Other or expanded categories
- Slightly Increase

1. Alcohol taxes
- Maintain Status

2. Capital gains taxes
- Maintain Status

3. Cigarette taxes
- Maintain Status

4. Corporate taxes
- Maintain Status

5. Estate taxes
- Maintain Status

6. Gas taxes
- Maintain Status

7. Property taxes
- Maintain Status

8. Vehicle taxes
- Maintain Status

9. Other or expanded categories
- No Answer

10. Should Internet sales be taxed?
- Undecided

11. Should Alaska adjust the oil tax so the rate of taxation fluctuates in proportion with the price of oil per barrel?
- Undecided

12. Should Alaska institute a state income tax to increase revenue?
- Undecided

13. Should Alaska institute a state sales tax to increase revenue?
- No

14. Other or expanded principles
- No Answer

Alaska Permanent Fund

1. at the discretion of the Legislature.
- No Answer

2. limited by the state constitution to five percent of the Fund?s value.
- No Answer

3. Other or expanded principles
- X

1. at least one thousand dollars, regardless of revenue projections.
- No Answer

2. determined by revenue projections.
- X

3. Other or expanded principles
- No Answer

1. help fund education and other essential state services.
- No Answer

2. help finance state investments through general obligation bonds.
- No Answer

3. be distributed to local governments.
- No Answer

4. be reinvested in the principal of the Fund.
- No Answer

5. Other or expanded principles
- X

Campaign Finance and Government Reform

1. Do you support the current limit of two consecutive four-year terms for Alaska governors?
- Yes

2. Do you support limiting terms for Alaska state senators and representatives?
- No

1. Individual
- Yes

2. PAC
- Yes

3. Corporate
- No

4. Political Parties
- Yes

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

6. Do you support imposing spending limits on state level political campaigns?
- No

7. Do you support adopting statewide standards for counting, verifying, and ensuring accuracy of votes?
- Yes

8. Do you support prohibiting the reporting of media exit polling results until all polling locations in Alaska are closed?
- Undecided

9. Should Alaska recognize civil unions between same-sex couples?
- No

10. Should Alaska restrict marriage to a union only between a man and a woman?
- Yes

11. Other or expanded principles
- No Answer

Crime

1. Increase state funds for construction of state prisons and for hiring of additional prison staff.
- X

2. Implement the death penalty in Alaska.
- No Answer

3. Support programs to provide prison inmates with vocational and job-related skills and job-placement assistance when released.
- X

4. End parole for repeat violent offenders.
- X

5. Implement penalties other than incarceration for certain non-violent offenders.
- X

6. Decriminalize the possession of small amounts of marijuana.
- No Answer

7. Strengthen penalties and sentences for drug-related crimes.
- No Answer

8. Minors accused of a violent crime should be prosecuted as adults.
- X

9. Increase state funding for community centers and other social agencies in areas with at-risk youth.
- X

10. Increase funding for state and local emergency agencies to prevent and to respond to terrorist attacks.
- X

11. Other or expanded principles
- No Answer

Education

1. Support national standards and testing of public school students.
- No Answer

2. Provide parents with state-funded vouchers to send their children to any public school.
- No Answer

3. Provide parents with state-funded vouchers to send their children to any private or religious school.
- No Answer

4. Increase state funds for school capital improvements (e.g. buildings and infrastructure).
- X

5. Increase state funds for hiring additional teachers.
- X

6. Support teacher testing and reward with merit pay.
- No Answer

7. Endorse voluntary prayer in public schools.
- No Answer

8. Require public schools to administer high school exit exams.
- No Answer

9. Provide state funding to increase teacher salaries.
- No Answer

10. Increase funding for Head Start programs.
- X

11. Provide state funding for tax incentives and financial aid to help make college more affordable.
- X

12. Support sexual education programs that include information on abstinence, contraceptives, and HIV/STD prevention methods.
- No Answer

13. Support abstinence-only sexual education programs.
- No Answer

14. Other or expanded principles
- No Answer

Employment and Affirmative Action

1. Increase funding for state job-training programs that re-train displaced workers and teach skills needed in today?s job market.
- X

2. Reduce state government regulations on the private sector in order to encourage investment and economic expansion.
- No Answer

3. Provide low interest loans and tax credits for starting, expanding, or relocating businesses.
- X

4. Provide tax credits for businesses that provide child care for children in low-income working families.
- X

5. Increase state funds to provide child care for children in low-income working families.
- X

6. Include sexual orientation in Alaska?s anti-discrimination laws.
- No Answer

7. Increase the state minimum wage.
- No Answer

8. Use administrative facilitators instead of courts to settle workers' compensation claims.
- No Answer

9. Other or expanded principles
- No Answer

1. Public employment
- No

2. State college and university admissions
- No

3. State contracting
- Undecided

4. Other or expanded principles
- No Answer

Environment and Energy

1. Promote increased use of alternative fuel technology.
- X

2. Support increased production of traditional domestic energy sources (e.g. coal, natural gas, and oil).
- X

3. Use state funds to clean up former industrial and commercial sites that are contaminated, unused, or abandoned.
- X

4. Support funding for open space preservation.
- No Answer

5. Support the construction of a natural gas pipeline in order to provide new sources of revenue in Alaska.
- X

6. Enact environmental regulations even if they are stricter than federal law.
- No Answer

7. Other or expanded principles
- No Answer

Gun

1. Maintain and strengthen the enforcement of existing state restrictions on the purchase and possession of guns.
- No Answer

2. Ease state restrictions on the purchase and possession of guns.
- No Answer

3. Repeal state restrictions on the purchase and possession of guns.
- No Answer

4. Allow citizens to carry concealed guns.
- X

5. Require manufacturers to provide child-safety locks on guns.
- No Answer

6. Require background checks on gun sales between private citizens at gun shows.
- No Answer

7. Require a license for gun possession.
- No Answer

8. Other or expanded principles
- No Answer

Health

1. Ensure that citizens have access to basic health care through managed care, insurance reforms, or state-funded care where necessary.
- X

2. Transfer more existing Medicaid recipients into managed care programs.
- No Answer

3. Limit the amount of punitive damages that can be awarded in medical malpractice lawsuits.
- No Answer

4. Support patients' right to sue their HMOs.
- X

5. Support patients' right to appeal to an administrative board of specialists when services are denied.
- X

6. Guaranteed medical care to all citizens is not a responsibility of state government.
- No Answer

7. Legalize physician assisted suicide in Alaska.
- No Answer

8. Allow doctors to prescribe marijuana to their patients for medicinal purposes.
- No Answer

9. Other or expanded principles
- No Answer

Welfare and Poverty

1. Support increased work requirements for able-bodied welfare recipients.
- X

2. Increase funding for employment and job training programs for welfare recipients.
- X

3. Increase access to public transportation for welfare recipients who work.
- No Answer

4. Limit benefits given to recipients if they have additional children while on welfare.
- No Answer

5. Redirect welfare funding to faith-based and community-based private organizations.
- No Answer

6. Use federal TANF (Temporary Assistance to Needy Families) funds to extend health and child care subsidies to the working poor.
- No Answer

7. Support marriage promotion programs for welfare recipients.
- No Answer

8. Eliminate government-funded welfare programs.
- No Answer

9. Other or expanded principles
- No Answer

Legislative Priorities

Please explain in a total of 75 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.
- Getting the State's Financial House in Order: Even though the price of oil is high now, we cannot depend on it to remain so. We must develop a long term fiscal plan, even if such a plan will not be implemented until our constitiutional budget reserve is depleted below a minimum level. In other words, come up with a plan now and do not wait for an economic crisis.I also believe that education should be funded early in the legislative session so that school districts can know what to expect earlier each year. Also in this way, our children's education is not a political pawn when the final budget is enacted.