Robert Dutton's Issue Positions (Political Courage Test)
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Washington State Legislative Election 2008 Political Courage Test
The Political Courage Test asks candidates which items they will support if elected. It does not ask them to indicate which items they will oppose. Through extensive research of public polling data, we discovered that voters are more concerned with what candidates would support when elected to office, not what they oppose. If a candidate does not select a response to any part or all of any question, it does not necessarily indicate that the candidate is opposed to that particular item.
Indicate which principles you support (if any) regarding abortion.
| a) Abortions should always be illegal. | |||
| b) Abortions should always be legal. | |||
| c) Abortions should be legal only within the first trimester of pregnancy. | |||
| X | d) Abortions should be legal when the pregnancy resulted from incest or rape. | ||
| X | e) Abortions should be legal when the life of the woman is endangered. | ||
| f) Abortions should be subject to a mandatory waiting period. | |||
| X | g) Require clinics to give parental notification before performing abortions on minors. | ||
| Abortion should be legal only when fetus is not viable. | |||
State Budget: Indicate what state funding levels (#1-6) you support for the following general categories. Select one level per category, you can use a number more than once.State Taxes: Indicate what state tax levels (#1-6) you support for the following general categories. Select one level per category, you can use a number more than once.
| Maintain Status | a) Education (Higher) | ||
| Maintain Status | b) Education (K-12) | ||
| Slightly Increase | c) Emergency preparedness | ||
| Slightly Decrease | d) Environment | ||
| Maintain Status | e) Health care | ||
| Slightly Increase | f) Law enforcement | ||
| Maintain Status | g) Transportation and highway infrastructure | ||
| Slightly Decrease | h) Welfare | ||
| i) Other or expanded categories | |||
| Maintain Status | a) Alcohol taxes | ||
| Maintain Status | b) Cigarette taxes | ||
| Slightly Decrease | c) Corporate taxes | ||
| Maintain Status | d) Gasoline taxes | ||
| Slightly Decrease | e) Property taxes | ||
| Maintain Status | f) Sales taxes | ||
| Maintain Status | g) Vehicle taxes | ||
| h) Other or expanded categories | |||
| Yes | 1) Should state sales taxes be extended to Internet sales? | ||
| No | 2) Should accounts such as a "rainy day" fund be used to balance the state budget? | ||
| No | 3) Should fee increases be used to balance the state budget? | ||
| 4) Other or expanded principles | |||
Indicate which principles you support (if any) regarding campaign finance and government reform.c) Do you support limiting the following types of contributions to state legislative candidates?
| Yes | a) Do you support limiting the number of terms for Washington governors? | ||
| Yes | b) Do you support limiting the number of terms for Washington state senators and representatives? | ||
| Yes | 1) Individual | ||
| Yes | 2) PAC | ||
| Yes | 3) Corporate | ||
| Yes | 4) Political Parties | ||
| Yes | d) Do you support requiring full and timely disclosure of campaign finance information? | ||
| No | e) Do you support imposing spending limits on state-level political campaigns? | ||
| Yes | f) Should Washington participate in the federal REAL ID program? | ||
| The state should fund and have a central campaign website for all campaigns, where each campaign has its own pages, and can post it's issues. The state should provide group mailing of all campaign literature on a periodic basis. | |||
Indicate which principles you support (if any) regarding crime.
| a) Increase state funds for construction of state prisons and hiring of additional prison staff. | |||
| X | b) Support the death penalty in Washington. | ||
| X | c) Support programs to provide prison inmates with vocational and job-related skills and job-placement assistance when released. | ||
| X | d) Implement penalties other than incarceration for certain non-violent offenders. | ||
| X | e) Decriminalize the possession of small amounts of marijuana. | ||
| f) Minors accused of a violent crime should be prosecuted as adults. | |||
| X | g) Support state and local law enforcement officials enforcing federal immigration laws. | ||
| h) Support hate crime legislation. | |||
| criminals should be placed in work camps to help societal programs such as clearing trails and doing environmental cleanup. Non violent felons should be kept separate from violent felons. We should institute drug courts and put nonviolent drug offenders in outdoor work camps with drug treatment priorities to improve their bodies and minds. | |||
Indicate which principles you support (if any) regarding education.
| a) Support state funding of universal pre-K programs. | |||
| X | b) Support federal education standards and testing requirements for K-12 students (No Child Left Behind). | ||
| c) Support state education standards and testing requirements for K-12 students. | |||
| X | d) Support requiring public schools to administer high school exit exams. | ||
| X | e) Allow parents to use vouchers to send their children to any public school. | ||
| X | f) Allow parents to use vouchers to send their children to any private or religious school. | ||
| g) Provide state funding to increase teacher salaries. | |||
| X | h) Support using a merit pay system for teachers. | ||
| i) Provide state funding for tax incentives and financial aid to help make college more affordable. | |||
| j) Support allowing illegal immigrant high school graduates of Washington to pay in-state tuition at public universities. | |||
| Illegal aliens should not get state assistance in higher education. Eliminate the tenure system that protects bad teachers, and give principals the authority to hire/fire teachers, give principals authority over the school budget. | |||
Indicate which principles you support (if any) regarding employment.
| X | a) Increase funding for state job-training programs that re-train displaced workers and teach skills needed in today's job market. | ||
| X | b) Reduce state government regulations on the private sector. | ||
| c) Provide low interest loans and tax credits for starting, expanding, or relocating businesses. | |||
| d) Provide tax credits for businesses that provide child care for children in low-income working families. | |||
| e) Increase state funds to provide child care for children in low-income working families. | |||
| f) Increase the state minimum wage. | |||
| g) Support laws that prevent employers from dismissing employees at will. | |||
| X | h) Support financial punishments for those who knowingly employ illegal immigrants. | ||
| X | i) Support increased work requirements for able-bodied welfare recipients. | ||
| X | j) Increase funding for employment and job training programs for welfare recipients. | ||
| k) Support allowing day care workers to unionize. | |||
| l) Other or expanded principles | |||
Indicate which principles you support (if any) regarding the environment and energy.
| X | a) Promote increased use of alternative fuel technology. | ||
| X | b) Support increased production of traditional domestic energy sources (e.g. coal, natural gas, oil, etc). | ||
| c) Support providing financial incentives to farms that produce biofuel crops. | |||
| d) Use state funds to clean up former industrial and commercial sites that are contaminated, unused, or abandoned. | |||
| X | e) Support funding for improvements to Washington's power generating and transmission facilities. | ||
| f) Support funding for open space preservation. | |||
| g) Limit carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases linked to global warming. | |||
| h) Enact environmental regulations even if they are stricter than federal law. | |||
| Eliminate subsidies for alternative fuels that damage equipment, and don't solve environmental problems such as bioethanol, which is a corrosive solvent that damages gas powered equipment and causes significant increase in pollution while driving up the cost of fuel and food. Support hydropower as a sustainable power, and look at technologies that increase efficiency of hydropower output. I do not support the removal of hydroelectric dams. Expedite the temporary placement of wind or wave energy generators to allow studying of such technologies effect on the environment. | |||
Indicate which principles you support (if any) regarding guns.
| Yes | a) Should background checks be required on gun sales between private citizens at gun shows? | ||
| Yes | b) Should citizens be allowed to carry concealed guns? | ||
| No | c) Should a license be required for gun possession? | ||
| Yes | d) Do you support current levels of enforcement of existing state restrictions on the purchase and possession of guns? | ||
| No | e) Do you support current state restrictions on the purchase and possession of guns? | ||
| I believe trained staff at schools should be permitted to carry concealed weapon so as to provide better security | |||
Indicate which principles you support (if any) regarding health.
| a) Ensure that citizens have access to basic health care through managed care, insurance reforms, or state-funded care where necessary. | |||
| X | b) Guaranteed medical care to all citizens is not a responsibility of state government. | ||
| X | c) Limit the amount of damages that can be awarded in medical malpractice lawsuits. | ||
| X | d) Allow patients to sue their HMOs. | ||
| X | e) Require hospitals and labs to release reports on infections that are a risk to public health, while not compromising patient confidentiality. | ||
| X | f) Legalize physician assisted suicide in Washington. | ||
| X | g) Support allowing doctors to prescribe marijuana to their patients for medicinal purposes. | ||
| X | h) Support prohibiting the use or sale of prescription data for marketing purposes. | ||
| Tort reform is needed. Joint and severability "Deep Pockets" laws need to be laminated. Faster payout schedules should be provided to victims of malpractice. | |||
['Indicate which principles you support (if any) regarding social issues.', 'Legislative Priorities']
| Yes | a) Should Washington recognize civil unions between same-sex couples? | ||
| No | b) Should same-sex couples be allowed to marry? | ||
| No | c) Should Washington provide state-level spousal rights to same-sex couples? | ||
| Yes | d) Do you support a moment of silence in public schools? | ||
| Yes | e) Do you support voluntary prayer in public schools? | ||
| Yes | f) Do you support sexual education programs that include information on abstinence, contraceptives, and HIV/STD prevention methods? | ||
| Yes | g) Do you support abstinence-only sexual education programs? | ||
| No | h) Should the state government consider race and gender in state government contracting and hiring decisions? | ||
| No | i) Do you support affirmative action in public college admissions? | ||
| No | j) Should Washington continue affirmative action programs? | ||
| Yes | k) Do you support state funding of stem cell research? | ||
| No | l) Do you support state funding of embryonic stem cell research? | ||
| Yes | m) Do you support allowing pharmacists who conscientiously object to emergency contraception to refuse to dispense it? | ||
| n) Other or expanded principles | |||
| Balance the budget without increasing taxes by reducing illogical regulations, implementing tort reform increasing competition on contracts, eliminating state ethanol mandate, freezing mandates, and instituting state government wage and hiring freeze. Improve education by expanding online education, which saves about $2000 per student, empowering principals with hiring/firing and budget authority, giving bonuses to great teachers and firing the bad ones, and reduce the power of the unions. Increase jobs, which includes promoting energy independence by encouraging drilling offshore and ANWR assisting smart alternative energy programs by reducing government interference in permitting and easements. ANWR alone will create 12,000 Washington jobs. | |||
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