Alabama State Legislative Election 2010 Political Courage Test

Abortion and Reproductive

1. Do you consider yourself pro-choice or pro-life?
- Pro-life

2. Should abortion be legal only within 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?
- Yes

6. Do you support requiring parental consent before an abortion is performed on a minor?
- Yes

7. Do you support sexual education programs that include information on abstinence, contraceptives, and HIV/STD prevention methods?
- Yes

8. Do you support abstinence-only sexual education programs?
- Yes

9. 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
- Greatly Increase

7. Welfare
- Greatly Decrease

8. Other or expanded categories
- Greatly Decrease

1. Alcohol taxes
- Maintain Status

2. Cigarette taxes
- Maintain Status

3. Corporate taxes
- Slightly Decrease

4. Gasoline taxes
- Slightly Decrease

5. Property taxes
- Slightly Decrease

6. Sales taxes
- Greatly Decrease

7. Sales taxes (grocery)
- Eliminate

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

9. Income taxes (middle-income families)
- Slightly Decrease

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

11. Other or expanded categories
- No Answer

1. Tapping into Alabama's "rainy day" fund
- Yes

2. Regulating and taxing gaming proceeds
- No

3. Issuing the early release of certain non-violent offenders
- No Answer

4. Increasing tuition rates at public universities
- No

5. Instituting mandatory furloughs and layoffs for state employees
- No

6. Reducing benefits for Medicaid recipients
- Yes

7. Privatizing certain government services
- Yes

8. Other or expanded principles
- We should cut non-essential government programs to balance our budget as opposed to raising more revenue. Also state government should change the way we predict revenue to the state.

Campaign Finance and Government Reform

1. Individual
- No

2. Political Action Committee
- No

3. Corporate
- No

4. Political Party
- No

5. Should candidates for state office be encouraged to meet voluntary spending limits?
- No

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

7. Should the Alabama Ethics Commission have the power of subpoena?
- Yes

8. Should current elected officials be prohibited from holding additional state jobs?
- Yes

9. Should Alabama hold a constitutional convention to rewrite the state constitution?
- No

1. Other or expanded principles
- All campaign finance disclosures should be fully reported in a digital format for easier research by the voters.

Crime and Public Safety

1. Do you support capital punishment for certain crimes?
- Yes

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

3. Should the possession of small amounts of marijuana be decriminalized?
- No

4. Do you support increasing penalties for illegal cockfighting?
- Yes

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

6. Should a minor who sends sexually-explicit or nude photos by cell phone face criminal charges?
- Yes

7. Do you support the enforcement of federal immigration laws by state and local police?
- Yes

8. Other or expanded principles
- A minor should be be prosecuted of committing a violent crime in certain circumstances. It depends on the age of the minor. A minor who is 8 years old should be treated differently than someone who is 17 years old depending on the crime.

Economic

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

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

3. Do you support expanding access to unemployment benefits?
- No

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

5. Do you support increased spending on infrastructure projects for the purpose of job creation?
- Yes

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

7. Other or expanded principles
- No Answer

Education

1. Do you support national education standards?
- No

2. Do you support requiring public schools to administer high school exit exams?
- Yes

3. Do you support using a merit pay system for teachers?
- Yes

4. Do you support state funding for charter schools?
- No Answer

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

6. Should illegal immigrants who graduate from Alabama high schools be eligible for in-state tuition at public universities?
- No

7. Other or expanded principles
- National education standards are good depending on how broad those standards are and Charter Schools are ok if they are started with a small and limited pilot program basis to determine what type of charter schools systems actually work or not.

Environment and Energy

1. Do you support state funding for the development of alternative energy?
- Yes

2. Do you support state funding for the development of traditional domestic energy sources (e.g. coal, natural gas, oil)?
- Yes

3. Do you support providing financial incentives to farms that produce biofuel crops?
- Yes

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

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

6. Do you support enacting environmental regulations aimed at reducing the effects of climate change?
- No

7. Other or expanded principles
- No Answer

Gun

1. Do you support restrictions on the purchase and possession of guns?
- No

2. Do you support requiring background checks on gun sales between private citizens at gun shows?
- No

3. Do you support allowing individuals to carry concealed guns?
- Yes

4. Do you support requiring a license for gun possession?
- Yes

5. Other or expanded principles
- No Answer

Health

1. Do you support a universally-accessible, publicly-administered health insurance option?
- No

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. Should individuals be required to purchase health care insurance?
- No

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

6. Do you support legalizing physician-assisted suicide in Alabama?
- No

7. Do you support allowing doctors to prescribe marijuana to their patients for medicinal purposes?
- No

8. Other or expanded principles
- Federal health care mandates on state governments should be eliminated.

Social

1. Should marriage only be between one man and one woman?
- Yes

2. Should Alabama allow same-sex couples to form civil unions?
- No

3. Do you support state funding for stem cell research?
- No

4. Do you support state funding for embryonic stem cell research?
- No

5. Do you support the state's use of affirmative action?
- Yes

6. Do you support the inclusion of sexual orientation in Alabama's anti-discrimination laws?
- No

7. Do you support the inclusion of gender identity in Alabama's anti-discrimination laws?
- No

8. Other or expanded principles
- No Answer

Legislative 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.
- We need stronger ethics laws in Alabama which would include subpoena power for the Alabama Ethics Commission. In addition to stronger ethics laws we need to reform our tax code so that it will encourage more public / private partnerships in economic development.