Massachusetts Congressional Election 2018 Political Courage Test

Abortion

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

2. Other or expanded principles
- I support safe and legal abortion under the Roe v Wade decision and policies that advance reproductive justice for all, such as the repeal of the Hyde Amendment. I support the role of the Federal government as a guarantor of access to reproductive justice, and for the federal government to act proactively to remove barriers to reproductive justice. Furthermore, I support the full legal and social equality of all women in all intersections of race, class, ability, sexual orientation and gender identity, which leads so many women to bear multiple burdens of discrimination as women and in other identities.

Budget

1. In order to balance the budget, do you support an income tax increase on any tax bracket?
- Yes

2. In order to balance the budget, do you support reducing defense spending?
- Yes

3. Other or expanded principles
- I support the Congressional Progressive Caucus's "People's Budget", which would make the wealthy pay their fair share of taxes again by restoring Clinton-era tax rates on those making over $250,000 a year and creating new tax brackets of 45-49% on those making $1 million or more. See: https://www.alexandrachandler.com/fiscal-responsibility/ for more details. I will use my expertise as a former naval intelligence analyst and leader to argue for reductions in defense spending including rolling back Administration increases in the size of the Army and Marine Corps, eliminating hundreds of billions of spending on the modernization of our land-based nuclear weapons.

Campaign Finance

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

2. Other or expanded principles
- We must pass a 28th Amendment to the Constitution for comprehensive anti-corruption and democracy promotion reform. The Amendment should ban all PAC and SuperPAC contributions, and ideally ban all individual campaign contributions and mandate a system of publicly funded elections at all levels of government. I'm the only MA-3 candidate that has signed as a ?Candidate With a Contract? (http://www.candidateswithacontract.com) committing me to introduce such legislation on pain of resignation from Congress. Per Lowell Sun reporting, I'm proud to have the lowest median donation in the race? $27, highlighting my authentically grassroots support. I refuse to take corporate PAC money.

Economy

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

2. Do you support lowering corporate taxes as a means of promoting economic growth?
- No

3. Other or expanded principles
- No. We should promote economic growth by increasing wages and disposable income for working-class and middle-class people by raising the federal minimum wage, radically expanding the Earned Income Tax Credit, and conditioning corporate tax breaks on expanded profit sharing programs. These policies will promote sustainable and inclusive consumer-led economic growth that will also reduce income inequality, and combined with a federal job guarantee will ensure that every full-time job in America is a living wage job. See more details on my plans to create better jobs and better pay at https://www.alexandrachandler.com/jobs

Education

1. Do you support requiring states to adopt federal education standards?
- Yes

2. Other or expanded principles
- The federal government must serve as a guarantor of the human and civil right of every child to a free and appropriate education. That right remains out of reach for too many children, especially those from working-class families and communities of color, children with disabilities, as well as LGBT children, particularly transgender children under attack from this Administration. The federal government should use standards, dissemination of research and best practices, and targeted resources--such as Title I, IDEA, and NEA and ESSA-associated arts and civic education funds?as leverage to foster excellence and equity for all children in the United States.

Energy & Environment

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

2. Do you support the federal regulation of greenhouse gas emissions?
- Yes

3. Other or expanded principles
- I support the federal regulation of greenhouse gas emissions as critical to combat the existential crisis of our time-- climate change. The federal government must be a facilitator and leader in this effort beyond the scale of the Manhattan and Apollo Projects ? and our district's manufacturing base is well postured to take advantage of the economic opportunities that will result. I support the 100 by 50 Act, and its policy prescriptions, incentives, and funding mechanisms to transition us to a 100% renewable economy by 2050. I'm #StillIn, and support continued adherence to the terms of the Paris climate agreement.

Guns

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

2. Other or expanded principles
- Yes. I will be a leader in this effort. I?ll never forget the time I got a call from my son?s school that it was on lockdown due to a shooting across the street ? as a mother, that moment was my worst nightmare. I also spent 12 years producing intelligence analysis to stop weapons from going into conflict zones all over the world, in order to save lives. I support universal background checks, banning large-capacity magazines, buyback programs, raising the minimum purchase age to 21, removing ATFE restrictions, mandated waiting periods, and restoring the federal assault weapons ban.

Health Care

1. Do you support repealing the 2010 Affordable Care Act ("Obamacare")?
- No

2. Other or expanded principles
- No. Healthcare is a human right. I support a deliberative transition to a Medicare for All system where we cut out the middlemen in healthcare and put patients before profits. I will ensure Medicare is improved in this transition process and incorporates essential Medicaid programs including for people living with disabilities and seniors. I support people being able to continue to buy private health insurance as a supplement to the coverage for medically necessary services. In the interim, we need to lower premiums and copays and improve access to care, and enable Medicare to negotiate the price of prescription drugs.

Immigration

1. Do you support the construction of a wall along the Mexican border?
- No

2. Do you support requiring immigrants who are unlawfully present to return to their country of origin before they are eligible for citizenship?
- No

3. Other or expanded principles
- America is great in large part because of immigration. I support a path to citizenship for not only DACA, and TPS recipients, but for all undocumented people in the United States provided they have not been convicted of a serious violent crime. I aim to consolidate cumbersome immigration bureaucracy to the fullest extent we can within treaty obligations and constraints. I will use my credibility as a former national security professional and my Congressional oversight and budgetary powers to defund ICE's enforcement of the "zero-tolerance" policy, and to lead a large-scale reform of the entire Department of Homeland Security.

Marijuana

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

2. Other or expanded principles
- It?s time to end the racially unjust, failed experiment to criminalize marijuana, and divert our public money to combat the opioid epidemic and other priorities. I will vote for the Marijuana Justice Act, which will not only remove marijuana from Schedule I of the Controlled Substances Act, but will actively encourage states to decriminalize marijuana by restricting certain federal funds from states with marijuana laws that disproportionately impact low-income people and people of color. This Act will also expunge federal marijuana use and possession crimes from the record and allow currently serving inmates to petition for reduced sentencing or release.

National Security

1. Should the United States use military force in order to prevent governments hostile to the U.S. from possessing a nuclear weapon?
- No

2. Do you support increased American intervention in Middle Eastern conflicts beyond air support?
- No

3. Other or expanded principles
- I am the only candidate in this race who has worked as a national security professional. For 13 years, I served in the Intelligence Community; for five years, I led the Intelligence Community effort to combat the spread of weapons of mass destruction from countries like North Korea and arms smuggling to conflict zones and terrorist groups. My experience teaches me that more military intervention is seldom the right answer. I will aim to use my expertise to be an effective messenger for increases in resources to our diplomatic, development, and democracy promotion efforts to balance our focus on defense.

Administrative Priorities

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.
- 1) Making every full-time job in America is a living wage job. I will work to expand the Earned Income Tax Credit, enact a federal jobs guarantee, restore the power of unions, and implement debt-free college. I will finance these policies through restoring progressive taxation and ending corporate tax breaks. 2) Ensuring universal healthcare, inclusive of mental health care, and addiction treatment, by building a single-payer healthcare system, financed through payroll taxes 3) Protecting our democracy from the threats of corruption and Big Money politics at home, and the ongoing interference in our politics and in our elections from abroad