Colorado 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
- Our individual rights to control our own bodies and make medical decisions in private with the advice of our doctors is paramount to our rights as citizens in a free country. No woman nor man should have the government in the exam room with them when having medical discussions with their doctor.

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 am open to explore all creative ways for us to have a tax code that is fair and that meets our budgetary spending requirements. I am open to evaluating all sections of the budget to make sure we are not wasting funds in any area. It is unlikely that the lowest tax bracket would have an increase in income tax as to do so may not be fair.

Campaign Finance

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

2. Other or expanded principles
- It is necessary for us to get the money coming into our political systems not from individuals out of the process. This is quickly leading us away from one person one vote principals on which we were founded.

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
- When we lower the corporate tax rate, especially when there is no attention given to all the deductions and carve outs to paying the set rate, we are only hurting ourselves as a country, adding to the national debt and being irresponsible in balancing the budget. The corporate tax rate was never actually paid at the set rate due to the complexity of the tax code and ways of lowering the rate through these deductions.

Education

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

2. Other or expanded principles
- Our public education system is a pillar of our democracy and in order for us to move forward we have to remember how important it is that every American student is receiving an equal opportunity to education and that what is being taught is also as uniform as possible. It is important we all learn what makes us Americans and get the tools necessary to be productive citizens when possible.

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
- This is our only planet. We have a moral responsibility to do everything we can to protect our earth for the future.

Guns

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

2. Other or expanded principles
- I preferred to put this in terms of gun safety legislation. Unfortunately our political discourse has led to the situation where the word "control" prevents meaningful discussion on what we can do to address the gun violence problem we have in our country.

Health Care

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

2. Other or expanded principles
- The ACA needs fixing. I do not want us to lose the mandated coverage that was implemented with the ACA. Instead we should work together to find ways to improve on the health care system and work to get a system that is fair, affordable and covers everyone.

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
- It doesn't make sense to have a blanket requirement such as this when so many situations have a multitude of variables that make each case different. It is important that we work toward comprehensive immigration reform and keep compassion as a value when creating policy.

Marijuana

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

2. Other or expanded principles
- I live in Colorado, the first state to pass legal recreational marijuana use. On the whole it has been a very positive move for our state and I don't see us as a country turning back this trend.

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
- These two questions are also not simple yes/no questions. These situations are terribly complicated and need to be studied carefully before decisions are made about the use of military force.

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.
- My top priority will be to work with others in Congress to continue the process of fixing our health care system. I would like to see the efforts to open up Medicare as a public option buy in and if done properly should save our country money by widening the pool of Medicare members that are paying to participate in the program earlier. It would also help increase the collective bargaining strength to help us lower pharmaceutical costs. Secondly I would want to work on Comprehensive Immigration policy to save DACA and consider reasonable paths to citizenship when applicable.