Paul Harris
RWon the General, 2022 Washington State house District 17-Position 2
Won the General, 2016 Washington State house District 17-Position 2
Won the General, 2012 Washington State house District 17-Position 2
Washington State House, 17 Position 2 (2010 - Present)
To be claimed
Former Member, Adult Behavioral Health System, Task Force, Washington State House of Representatives
Former Member, Appropriations Committee, Washington State House of Representatives
Former Ranking Minority Member, Education Committee, Washington State House of Representatives
Former Assistant Ranking Minority Member, Environment Committee, Washington State House of Representatives
Former Member, Health and Human Services Appropriations and Oversight Committee, Washington State House of Representatives
Former Member, Joint Committee on Aging and Disability, Washington State Senate
Former Member, Joint Committee on Article IX Litigation, Washington State Senate
Former Member, Technology, Energy and Communications Committee, Washington State House of Representatives
Member, Education Committee
Member, Health Care and Wellness Committee
Member, Joint Committee on Higher Education
Member, Joint Legislative Audit and Review Committee
Member, Joint Legislative Executive Committee on Planning for Aging and Disability Issues
Member, Joint Oregon-Washington Legislative Action Committee
Member, Joint Select Committee on Health Care Oversight
Member, Rules
Favorite Musician:
James Taylor and Gordon Lightfoot
Hobbies or Special Talents:
Basketball, skiing, playing guitar, and participating in my church choir
— Number of Grandchildren:
1. Abortions should always be illegal.
- No Answer
2. Abortions should always be legal.
- No Answer
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.
- X
5. Abortions should be legal when the life of the woman is endangered.
- X
6. Prohibit public funding of abortions and to organizations that advocate or perform abortions.
- No Answer
7. Require clinics to give parental notification before performing abortions on minors.
- No Answer
8. Other or expanded principles
- No Answer
1. Education (Higher)
- Slightly Increase
2. Education (K-12)
- Maintain Status
3. Emergency preparedness
- Maintain Status
4. Environment
- Maintain Status
5. Health care
- Slightly Increase
6. Law enforcement
- Slightly Increase
7. Transportation and Highway infrastructure
- Slightly Increase
8. Welfare
- Maintain Status
9. Other or expanded categories
- No Answer
1. Alcohol taxes
- Maintain Status
2. Capital gains taxes
- Eliminate
3. Cigarette taxes
- Maintain Status
4. Corporate taxes
- Slightly Decrease
5. Gasoline taxes
- Slightly Decrease
6. Property taxes
- Greatly Decrease
7. Sales taxes
- Maintain Status
8. Vehicle taxes
- Slightly Decrease
9. Other or expanded categories
- No Answer
10. Should the state sales taxes be extended to Internet sales?
- No
11. Should accounts such as a ?rainy day? fund be used to balance the state budget?
- Yes
12. Should fee increases be used to balance the state budget?
- Undecided
13. Other or expanded principles
- No Answer
1. Do you support limiting the number of terms for Washington governors?
- No
2. Do you support limiting the number of terms for Washington state senators and representatives?
- No
1. Individual
- No
2. PAC
- Yes
3. Corporate
- Yes
4. Political Parties
- Yes
5. Do you support requiring full and timely disclosure of campaign finance information?
- Yes
6. Do you support imposing spending limits on state level political campaigns?
- Yes
7. Do you support adopting statewide standards for counting, verifying and ensuring accuracy of votes?
- Yes
8. Do you support prohibiting media exit polling of voters until all polling locations in Washington are closed?
- No
9. Should Washington recognize civil unions between same-sex couples?
- No
10. Other or expanded principles
- No Answer
1. Increase state funds for construction of state prisons and hiring of additional prison staff.
- No Answer
2. Support the death penalty in Washington.
- 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.
- X
5. Implement penalties other than incarceration for certain non-violent offenders.
- No Answer
6. Decriminalize the possession of small amounts of marijuana.
- X
7. Strengthen penalties and sentences for drug-related crimes.
- No Answer
8. Minors accused of a violent crime should be prosecuted as adults.
- X
9. Require that crimes based on race, ethnic background, religious belief, sex, age, disability, or sexual orientation be prosecuted as hate crimes.
- X
10. Increase state funding for community centers and other social agencies in areas with at-risk youth.
- No Answer
11. Strengthen sex-offender laws.
- X
12. Support the restriction of the sale of products used to make methamphetamine (e.g. tablets containing pseudophedrine, ephedrine and phenylpropanolamine).
- No Answer
13. Other or expanded principles
- No Answer
1. Support national standards and testing of public school students.
- X
2. Provide parents with state-funded vouchers to send their children to any public school.
- X
3. Provide parents with state-funded vouchers to send their children to any private or religious school.
- X
4. Increase state funds for school capital improvements (e.g. buildings and infrastructure).
- No Answer
5. Increase funds for hiring additional teachers.
- No Answer
6. Support teacher testing and reward with merit pay.
- X
7. Endorse voluntary prayer in public schools.
- No Answer
8. Support requiring public schools to administer high school exit exams.
- No Answer
9. Provide alternative ways to meet graduation requirements for students who fail the WASL (Washington Assessment of Student Learning).
- No Answer
10. Provide state funding to increase teacher salaries.
- X
11. Increase funding for Head Start programs.
- No Answer
12. Provide state funding for tax incentives and financial aid to help make college more affordable.
- X
13. Support sexual education programs that include information on abstinence, contraceptives, and HIV/STD prevention methods.
- X
14. Support abstinence-only sexual education programs.
- No Answer
15. Other or expanded principles
- No Answer
1. Increase funding for state job-training programs that retrain displaced workers and teach skills needed in today?s job market.
- No Answer
2. Reduce state government regulations on the private sector in order to encourage investment and economic expansion.
- X
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 children in low-income working families.
- X
5. Increase state funds to provide child care for children in low-income working families.
- No Answer
6. Support the inclusion of sexual orientation in Washington's anti-discrimination laws.
- No Answer
7. Increase the state minimum wage.
- No Answer
8. Other or expanded principles
- No Answer
1. Public employment
- No
2. State college and university admissions
- No
3. State contracting
- No
4. Other or expanded principles
- No Answer
1. Promote increased use of alternative fuel technology.
- No Answer
2. Support increased production of traditional domestic energy sources (e.g. coal, natural gas, and oil).
- X
3. Use state funds to clean up former industrial and commercial sites that are contaminated, unused, or abandoned.
- No Answer
4. Increase funding for improvements to Washington's power generating and transmission facilities.
- X
5. Support funding for open space preservation.
- No Answer
6. Enact environmental regulations even if they are stricter than federal law.
- No Answer
7. Other or expanded principles
- No Answer
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.
- X
3. Repeal state restrictions on the purchase and possession of guns.
- No Answer
4. Allow citizens to carry concealed guns.
- No Answer
5. Require background checks on gun sales between private citizens at gun shows.
- No Answer
6. Require a license for gun possession.
- No Answer
7. Other or expanded principles
- No Answer
1. Ensure that citizens have access to basic health care through managed care, insurance reforms, or state-funded care where necessary.
- No Answer
2. Transfer current Medicaid recipients into managed care programs.
- No Answer
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.
- No Answer
5. Guaranteed medical care to all citizens is not a responsibility of state government.
- No Answer
6. Legalize physician assisted suicide in Washington.
- No Answer
7. Continue to allow doctors to prescribe marijuana to their patients for medicinal purposes.
- No Answer
8. Require companies with more than 5,000 employees to spend a certain percentage of their payroll costs on health-care benefits.
- No Answer
9. Require pharmacists to dispense emergency contraception without delay to anyone with a prescription for it.
- No Answer
10. Other or expanded principles
- Give tax credits to companies who offer to pay for health care
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. Redirect welfare funding to faith-based and community-based private organizations.
- No Answer
5. Use federal TANF (Temporary Assistance to Needy Families) funds to extend health and child care subsidies to the working poor.
- No Answer
6. Support marriage promotion programs for welfare recipients.
- No Answer
7. Eliminate government-funded welfare programs.
- No Answer
8. Other or expanded principles
- No Answer
Please explain in a total of 75 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.
- No Answer
Type: resolution Chamber: lower
Type: resolution Chamber: lower
Type: resolution Chamber: lower