Minnesota State Legislative Election 2004 National Political Awareness Test

Abortion

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 of organizations that advocate or perform abortions.
- No Answer

7. Other or expanded principles
- X

Budget

1. Education (Higher)
- Greatly Increase

2. Education (K-12)
- Greatly Increase

3. Environment
- Maintain Status

4. Health care
- Slightly Increase

5. Law enforcement
- Maintain Status

6. Transportation and Highway infrastructure
- Greatly Increase

7. Welfare
- Maintain Status

8. Other or expanded categories
- No Answer

9. Alcohol taxes
- Slightly Increase

10. Capital gains taxes
- Maintain Status

11. Cigarette taxes
- Greatly Increase

12. Corporate taxes
- Maintain Status

13. Estate taxes
- Maintain Status

14. Gasoline taxes
- Slightly Increase

15. Income taxes (incomes below $75,000)
- Maintain Status

16. Income taxes (incomes above $75,000)
- Slightly Increase

17. Property taxes
- Slightly Decrease

18. Sales taxes
- Maintain Status

19. Vehicle taxes
- Slightly Increase

20. Should Internet sales be taxed?
- Undecided

21. Do you support an expansion of legal gambling in Minnesota?
- Undecided

22. Do you support public funding for professional sports stadiums?
- No Answer

23. Do you suppor funding for the Northstar commuter rail line?
- Yes

24. What are your priorities for bonding for capital improvement projects? Please use forty (40) words or less.
- No Answer

25. Other or expanded principles
- I support progressive taxation

Campaign Finance

1. Do you support limiting the number of terms for Minnesota governors?
- Undecided

2. Do you support limiting the number of terms for Minnesota state senators and representatives?
- No

3. Individual
- Yes

4. PAC
- Yes

5. Corporate
- Yes

6. Political Parties
- Yes

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

8. Do you support imposing spending limits on state level political campaigns?
- No Answer

9. Do you support adopting statewide standards for counting, verifying, and ensuring accuracy of votes?
- Yes

10. Do you support prohibiting the reporting of media exit polling results until all polling locations in Minnesota are closed?
- Undecided

11. Should the Minnesota state constitution be amended to allow statewide initiative and popular referendum?
- No

12. Should Minnesota ban smoking in most public places, including bars and restaurants?
- Yes

13. Should Minnesota recognize civil unions between same-sex couples?
- Yes

14. Should Minnesota restrict marriage to a union only between a man and a woman?
- No

15. Other or expanded principles
- I oppose a restrictive constitutional amendment

Crime

1. Increase state funds for construction of state prisons and for hiring of additional prison staff.
- No Answer

2. Implement the death penalty in Minnesota.
- No Answer

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.
- X

6. Decriminalize the possession of small amounts of marijuana.
- No Answer

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. Increase state funding for community centers and other social agencies in areas with at-risk youth.
- X

10. Increase funding for state and local emergency agencies to prevent and to respond to terrorist attacks.
- X

11. Support life sentences for repeat sex offenders.
- X

12. Support mandatory life sentences for most first-degre sexual assaults, even for first offenses.
- No Answer

13. Other or expanded principles
- No Answer

Education

1. Support national standards and testing of public school students.
- No Answer

2. Provide parents with state-funded vouchers to send their children to any public school.
- No Answer

3. Provide parents with state-funded vouchers to send their children to any private or religious school.
- No Answer

4. Increase state funds for school capital improvements (e.g. buildings and infrastructure).
- X

5. Increase state funds for hiring additional teachers.
- X

6. Support teacher testing and reward with merit pay.
- No Answer

7. Endorse voluntary prayer in public schools.
- No Answer

8. Require public schools to administer high school exit exams.
- No Answer

9. Provide state funding to increase teacher salaries.
- X

10. Increase funding for Head Start programs.
- X

11. Provide state funding for tax incentives and financial aid to help make college more affordable.
- X

12. Support sexual education programs that include information on abstinence, contraceptives, and HIV/STD prevention methods.
- X

13. Support abstinence-only sexual education programs.
- No Answer

14. Other or expanded principles
- No Answer

Employment and Affirmative Action

1. Increase funding for state job-training programs that re-train displaced workers and teach skills needed in today's job market.
- X

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.
- X

6. Increase the state minimum wage.
- X

7. Other or expanded principles
- Race, ethnicity, and gender should only be one of many other criteria

8. Public employment
- No Answer

9. State college and university admissions
- No Answer

10. State contracting
- No Answer

Energy & Environment

1. Promote increased use of alternative fuel technology.
- X

2. Support increased production of traditional domestic energy sources (e.g. coal, natural gas, and oil).
- No Answer

3. Use state funds to clean up former industrial and commercial sites that are contaminated, unused, or abandoned.
- X

4. Support funding for open space preservation.
- X

5. Enact environmental regulations even if they are stricter than federal law.
- X

6. Other or expanded principles
- No Answer

Guns

1. Maintain and strengthen the enforcement of existing state restrictions on the purchase and possession of guns.
- X

2. Ease state restrictions on the purchase and possession of guns.
- No Answer

3. Repeal state restrictions on the purchase and possession of guns.
- No Answer

4. Allow citizens to carry concealed guns.
- X

5. Require manufacturers to provide child-safety locks on guns.
- No Answer

6. Require background checks on gun sales between private citizens at gun shows.
- X

7. Require a license for gun possession.
- No Answer

8. Other or expanded principles
- X

Health Care

1. Ensure that citizens have access to basic health care through managed care, insurance reforms, or state-funded care where necessary.
- X

2. Transfer more existing 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.
- X

5. Support patients' right to appeal to an administrative board of specialists when services are denied.
- X

6. Guaranteed medical care to all citizens is not a responsibility of state government.
- No Answer

7. Legalize physician assisted suicide in Minnesota.
- No Answer

8. Allow doctors to prescribe marijuana to their patients for medicinal purposes.
- No Answer

9. Other or expanded principles
- No Answer

Welfare and Poverty

1. Support increased work requirements for able-bodied welfare recipients.
- X

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. Limit benefits given to recipients if they have additional children while on welfare.
- No Answer

5. Redirect welfare funding to faith-based and community-based private organizations.
- No Answer

6. Use federal TANF (Temporary Assistance to Needy Families) funds to extend health and child care subsidies to the working poor.
- X

7. Support marriage promotion programs for welfare recipients.
- No Answer

8. Eliminate government-funded welfare programs.
- No Answer

9. Other or expanded principles
- No Answer

Legislative Priorities

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.
- (1) Full funding, reform, and accountability for Early Childhood and K-12 Education(2) Health care access and empowerment(3) Multimodal transportation(4) Honest budget-balancing, including spending cuts and revenue increases