Pennsylvania 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 support the work that organizations such as Planned Parenthood do in providing complete women's, and men's, health care in Pennsylvania. This includes providing access to safe abortions. I do not support efforts to defund Planned Parenthood or its affiliates, or place unnecessary political obstacles between a woman and her physician.

Budget, Spending, & Tax

1. Tapping into Pennsylvania'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
- Pennsylvania legislators must commit to real long-term solutions to addressing our budgetary shortfalls. This includes placing a much needed extraction tax on enormous oil and natural gas companies, which currently pay some of the lowest rates in the country. These funds can be used to provide support for crumbling infrastructure, benefits for our seniors and opportunities for our students to succeed.

1. Education (higher)
- Slightly Increase

2. Education (K-12)
- Greatly Increase

3. Environment
- Greatly Increase

4. Health care
- Greatly Increase

5. Law enforcement/corrections
- Maintain Status

6. Transportation/infrastructure
- Greatly Increase

7. Welfare
- Slightly Increase

8. Other or expanded categories
- Pennsylvania legislators have failed our youngest citizens by shortchanging our public schools. This has forced some of the poorest residents to shoulder more of the burden by placing regressive taxes on consumption in Philadelphia. Wealthy residents and large oil and natural gas producers must pay more to improve our public schools and rebuild our failing infrastructure. Making Pennsylvania competitive in the decades ahead demands investment in clean, renewable energy technologies that will make our communities more sustainable.

1. Alcohol taxes
- Maintain Status

2. Cigarette taxes
- Maintain Status

3. Corporate taxes
- Greatly Increase

4. Small business taxes
- Maintain Status

5. Gas/Oil taxes
- Greatly Increase

6. Property taxes
- Maintain Status

7. Sales taxes
- Maintain Status

8. Income taxes (low-income families)
- Maintain Status

9. Income taxes (mid-income families)
- Maintain Status

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

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

12. Other or expanded principles
- I do not support regressive consumption taxes which affect lower income families more heavily than higher income families. We must ask corporations to pay more, as their executives take in record profits and pay, while too many Pennsylvanians struggle to get by on a minimum wage that is not a fair living wage. This places a greater burden on the state to provide social services to make up for the wage gap.

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
- The Citizens United Supreme Court decision has allowed an unprecedented flow of unaccounted for money to pour into our elections. We must act to make Pennsylvania politics more democratic, so the views of the wealthy few cannot overpower that of the majority of citizens. Every vote should count equally, and unfettered election spending means some views are heard instead of others. We must also work to make voting easier, not harder, and voter ID laws have the perverse effect of driving away voters, most frequently young people, the elderly, and minorities.

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?
- Yes

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 Pennsylvania?
- Yes

8. Other or expanded principles
- Drug convictions have filled our jails over capacity and have destroyed families and our communities. We must invest those resources into reducing drug use and providing opportunities for our citizens, instead of placing them in jails and abandoning them once they are released. While I support the rule of law and our law enforcement, using law enforcement as a deportation mechanism makes our communities less safe by discouraging residents from seeking out law enforcement in the event of a crime. We must make law enforcement accessible to all to reduce crime and improve trust.

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?
- No

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

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?
- No

11. Other or expanded principles
- Pennsylvanians have been hard hit by economic forces beyond their control, and our leaders have not done enough to provide them with the opportunities to be economically self-sufficient. I support raising the minimum wage to a true living wage, so no working person should have to live in poverty. In the years after the 2008 financial crisis, big business has rebounded, with executive pay rising, while most Americans have seen wages decline. We must provide oversight of private business to make certain they cannot allow environmental or financial disaster to impact our state.

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 Pennsylvania high schools be eligible for in-state tuition at public universities?
- Yes

8. Other or expanded principles
- I support strong public schools and public school teachers. Our schools have not receive the prioritization in Harrisburg that they deserve, and hollowing them out with school vouchers will not strengthen them or our communities. I support charter schools as a component of our school system, but believe they must be subjected to the same financial accountability and academic oversight we expect from our traditional public schools. K-12 education is not enough to succeed in the 21st century economy, so I support providing affordable higher education to give our students the tools they need to succeed in the labor force.

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 Pennsylvania'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
- The dangers and environmental effects of fracking and oil and natural gas production are well-documented. I support a fracking moratorium to protect our water sources and the health of our families. I call for government support of clean renewable energy technology to make our state a leader in this field, while asking our oil and natural gas companies to pay their fair share towards the infrastructure and resources they utilize in Pennsylvania. We must protect our natural resources for the next generations, as well as the public health of everyone in the Commonwealth.

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?
- No

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

5. Should private organizations be able to sue municipal governments over the local regulation of firearms?
- No

6. Other or expanded principles
- The scourge of gun violence has hit Pennsylvania cities, particularly Philadelphia, hard. The answer is not more guns, but more scrutiny over who has access to a firearm. This can be achieved through common sense fixes to loopholes that allow anyone to purchase a weapon. I resist efforts by special interest organizations to target our cities with financial threats against efforts to keep our communities safe, such as the NRA-sponsored legislation that the Supreme Court held to be unconstitutional in 2015.

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?
- Yes

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?
- No

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

8. Other or expanded principles
- Despite gains under the Affordable Care Act, too many Americans remain uninsured and without access to truly affordable health coverage. I support efforts to build on and improve the ACA by increasing insurance competition, driving down prices, with the introduction of a "public option" and greater private insurance participation. Every American should have access to quality affordable health coverage, which improves the functioning of the system overall and reduces costs to patients and insurees. I support the advice of medical professionals in prescribing medication, including marijuana if deemed suitable by a physician.

Social

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

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

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

4. Other or expanded principles
- I support the Supreme Court's decision to recognize marriage equality across the country. We must update our anti-discrimination laws to reflect this reality, so that a person doesn't marry whom they love one day and face being fired from work on the next. Pennsylvanians should be free to work, live, and obtain services without fear regardless of their sexual orientation and/or gender identity.

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.
- I support ending the Philadelphia School Reform Commission (SRC) to give local control of schools to parents, students, and teachers. With fair funding and responsible reforms, we can provide every child a quality education. I believe companies need to pay a fair share to fund our schools, make our streets safer and revamp our infrastructure without resorting to measures that hurt working families. I will push for policies that put people into permanent, well-paying jobs. My district needs more jobs, not less. I will champion environmentally sustainable, economically responsible development to unlock the potential of our Commonwealth and my District.