California State Legislative Election 2004 National Political Awareness Test

Abortion

Indicate which principles you support (if any) regarding abortion.

1. Abortions should always be illegal.
- No Answer

2. Abortions should always be legal.
- X

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.
- X

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

7. Other or expanded principles
- No Answer

Budgetary, Spending and Tax

State Budget: Indicate the funding levels (#1-6) you will support for the following general categories. Select one level per category.

1. Education (Higher)
- Greatly Increase

2. Education (K-12)
- Greatly Increase

3. Environment
- Maintain Status

4. Health care
- Greatly Increase

5. Law enforcement
- Greatly Increase

6. Transportation and Highway infrastructure
- Greatly Increase

7. Welfare
- Greatly Increase

8. Other or expanded categories
- No Answer

State Taxes: Indicate the tax levels (#1-6) you will support. Select one level per tax.

1. Alcohol taxes
- Slightly Increase

2. Capital gains taxes
- Slightly Increase

3. Cigarette taxes
- Slightly Increase

4. Corporate taxes
- Greatly Increase

5. Gasoline taxes
- Slightly Increase

6. Income taxes (incomes below $75,000)
- Maintain Status

7. Income taxes (incomes above $75,000)
- Maintain Status

8. Inheritance taxes
- Maintain Status

9. Property taxes
- Maintain Status

10. Sales taxes
- Slightly Increase

11. Vehicle taxes
- Slightly Increase

12. Other or expanded categories
- No Answer

13. Should Internet sales be taxed?
- Undecided

14. What are your proposals for balancing California's budget? (50 words or less. Please use an attached page if the space provided is not adequate.)
- Cut administrative postitions, consolidate government, and slight increase in fees.

15. Other or expanded principles
- None

Campaign Finance and Governmental Reform

Indicate which principles you support (if any) regarding campaign finance and government reform.

1. Do you support the current two term, eight year term limit for California governors?
- Yes

2. Do you support the current two term, eight year term limit for California state senators?
- No

3. Do you support the current three term, six year term limit for California assembly members?
- No

Do you support limiting the following types of contributions to state legislative and gubernatorial candidates?

1. Individual
- No

2. PAC
- No

3. Corporate
- No

4. Political Parties
- No

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

6. Do you support partial funding from state taxes for state level political campaigns?
- No

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

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

9. Do you support prohibiting the reporting of media exit polling results until all polling locations in California are closed?
- No

10. Do you support providing human services (medical care, education, etc.) for legal immigrants and their children?
- Yes

11. Should California recognize civil unions between same-sex couples?
- Yes

12. Should California restrict marriage to a union only between a man and a woman?
- Yes

13. Other or expanded principles
- No Answer

Crime

Indicate which principles you support (if any) regarding crime.

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

2. Support the use of the death penalty in California.
- X

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.
- No Answer

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. Amend the three-strikes law so that it is applied only when the third offense is a serious or violent felony.
- No Answer

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

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

11. Other or expanded principles
- No Answer

Educational

Indicate which principles you support (if any) regarding 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 teachers with merit pay.
- X

7. Endorse voluntary prayer in public schools.
- X

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

9. Provide state funding to increase teacher salaries.
- X

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 teach about abstinence, contraceptives and HIV/STD prevention methods.
- No Answer

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

14. Support funding for multilingual education.
- X

15. Other or expanded principles
- No Answer

Employment and Affirmative Action

Employment: Indicate which principles you support (if any) regarding employment.

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

2. Reduce state government regulations on the private sector 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 their employees.
- X

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

6. Include sexual orientation in California's anti-discrimination laws.
- X

7. Create a 'living wage' standard for state employees and firms accepting state contracts.
- X

8. Other or expanded principles
- No Answer

Affirmative Action: Should race, ethnicity or gender be taken into account in state agencies' decisions on:

1. College and university admissions
- Yes

2. Public employment
- Yes

3. State contracting
- Yes

4. Other or expanded principles
- No Answer

Environmental and Energy

Indicate which principles you support (if any) regarding the environment and energy.

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

2. Support increased production of traditional domestic energy resources (e.g. coal, natural gas, and oil).
- No Answer

3. Use state funds to clean up former industrial and commercial sites that are contaminated, unused or abandoned.
- No Answer

4. Support reductions in greenhouse gas emissions.
- X

5. Ban drilling for oil and gas in waters off the California coast.
- No Answer

6. Support a bond for construction of a high-speed train linking the San Francisco Bay area to Los Angeles via the Central Valley.
- No Answer

7. Increase funding for open space preservation.
- No Answer

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

9. Other or expanded principles
- No Answer

Gun

Indicate which principles you support (if any) regarding guns.

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.
- No Answer

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

6. Require background checks on gun sales between citizens at gun shows.
- X

7. Require a license for gun possession.
- X

8. Establish a database of ballistic 'fingerprints' to track guns used in criminal activities.
- X

9. Other or expanded principles
- No Answer

Health

Indicate which principles you support (if any) regarding 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.
- X

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 by their HMO.
- X

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

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

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

9. Support stem cell research on existing lines of stem cells.
- No Answer

10. Allow laboratories to create new lines of stem cells for additional research.
- No Answer

11. Other or expanded principles
- No Answer

Welfare and Poverty

Indicate which principles you support (if any) regarding welfare.

1. Support increased work requirements for able-bodied welfare recipients.
- No Answer

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

3. Increase access to public transportation for welfare recipients who work.
- X

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.
- X

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

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

9. Maintain current spending levels for affordable housing.
- X

10. Other or expanded principles
- No Answer

Legislative Priorities

On an attached page, in a total of seventy-five (75) words or less, please explain what your two main legislative priorities will be if elected. Please explain how you would obtain any additional government funding needed to implement these priorities.
- No Answer