| Full Name: | Mark Allan Takano |
|---|---|
| Office: | U.S. House (CA) - District 41, Democratic |
| First Elected: | 11/06/2012 |
| Next Election: | 2014 |
| Gender: | Male |
|---|---|
| Birth Date: | 12/10/1960 |
| Birth Place: | Riverside, CA |
| Home City: | Riverside, CA |
| Religion: | Methodist |
Mark Allan Takano
Representative Mark Allan Takano's Issue Positions (Political Courage Test)
Project Vote Smart does not permit the use of its name or programs in any campaign activity, including advertising, debates, and speeches.
Mark Takano refused to tell citizens where he stands on any of the issues addressed in the 2012 Political Courage Test, despite repeated requests from Vote Smart, national media, and prominent political leaders.
What is the Political Courage Test?
Issue Positions
In response to the increasing unwillingness of candidates to answer issue questions, Project Vote Smart has researched Presidential and Congressional candidates' public ecords to determine candidates' likely responses on certain key issues. These issue positions, from the year 2012, are provided below as a courtesy to voters.
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Abortion: Do you generally support pro-choice or pro-life legislation? |  |
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Afghanistan: Do you support United States' combat operations in Afghanistan? | |
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Budget: In order to balance the budget, do you support reducing defense spending? | |
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Budget: In order to balance the budget, do you support an income tax increase on any tax bracket? | |
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| Yes |  |
Economy: Do you support federal spending as a means of promoting economic growth? | |
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Economy: Do you support providing tax incentives to businesses for the purpose of job creation? | |
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Education: Do you support requiring states to implement education reforms in order to be eligible for competitive federal grants? | |
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Energy: Do you support reducing restrictions on offshore energy production? | |
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Environment: Do you support the federal regulation of greenhouse gas emissions? | |
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| Yes | |
Guns: Do you support restrictions on the purchase and possession of guns? | |
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| No | |
Health Care: Do you support repealing the 2010 Affordable Care Act? | |
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Immigration: Do you support requiring illegal immigrants to return to their country of origin before they are eligible for citizenship? | |
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| Yes | |
Marriage: Do you support same-sex marriage? | |
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National Security: Do you support targeting suspected terrorists outside of official theaters of conflict? | |
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Social Security: Do you support allowing individuals to divert a portion of their Social Security taxes into personal retirement accounts? | |
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Key
Official Position: Candidate had the Political Courage to address this issue directly.
Inferred Position: Candidate refused to address this issue directly, but Project Vote Smart inferred this issue position based on the candidate's public statements, voting record, and evaluations from special interest groups.
Unknown Position: Candidate refused to address this issue.
Project Vote Smart's Research: Click on this icon to reveal more information about this candidate's position.
Other or Expanded Principles & Legislative Priorities are entered exactly as the candidate has submitted it. Project Vote Smart does not edit for misspelled words, punctuation or grammar.
Congressional Election 1994 National Political Awareness Test
This candidate has responded to a Political Courage Test in a previous election. As a continued effort to provide the American public with factual information on candidates running for public office, these archived responses are made available here.
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.
1. If elected to Congress, which of the following general principles or specific proposals will you support to address the problem of crime? | |
| X | Impose a national ban on the public sale of assault weapons. |
| X | Impose a national ban on the sale of handguns to minors. |
| X | Impose "truth in sentencing" legislation for violent criminals so they serve a full sentence with no chance of parole. |
| X | Create "boot camps" for juvenile and adult first-time offenders. |
| X | Prosecute as adults youths who are third-time violent felons. |
| Impose the death penalty for certain federal crimes, including civil rights murders, rape and child molestation murders, death resulting from drive-by shootings or car-jacking, and murder of court officers or federal witnesses. | |
| X | Impose mandatory life sentences for third time violent felons. |
| X | Fund programs to provide prison inmates with vocational and job-related skills. |
| X | Increase the availability of college loans for youth in crime-ridden urban areas. |
| X | Fund programs which provide job training and employment opportunities for at-risk urban youth. |
| Other | |
2. If elected to Congress, which of the following general principles or specific proposals will you support concerning illegal drugs? | |
| X | Increase penalties for selling illegal drugs. |
| Support mandatory drug testing for federal employees. | |
| Expand efforts to stop the illegal flow of drugs to the United States from other countries. | |
| X | Expand federal support for education and drug treatment programs. |
| X | Maintain current federal laws. |
| Decriminalize the possession and private use of certain illegal drugs. | |
| Other | |
3. If elected to Congress, which of the following general principles or specific proposals will you support concerning the American health care system? | |
| Implement a government-financed, single-payer national health care system similar to Canada's. | |
| Support President Clinton's position for a "comprehensive health care plan for all Americans." | |
| X | Support a managed competition health care plan to contain costs and improve access that does not include mandated health alliances, government cost control powers, or employer/employee mandates. |
| X | Provide tax incentives for small businesses to help provide health care to their employees. |
| X | Allow middle and low income families to deduct yearly health care costs from their taxable income. |
| X | Create a voucher system for the working poor so they can buy into a health care plan. |
| X | Place limits on the amount of damages awarded in medical malpractice lawsuits. |
| Allow Americans to set up a tax-free medical savings account, which would be taxed if used for any purpose other than medical costs. | |
| Deregulate the private health care industry. | |
| Privatize Medicare and Medicaid. | |
| Other | |
4. If elected to Congress, which of the following general principles or specific proposals will you support to change America's welfare system? | |
| X | Strengthen child support collection procedures and increase penalties for parents who do not pay. |
| X | Impose a two-year limit on welfare benefits for recipients who are able to work. |
| X | Require welfare recipients to accept some form of government-sponsored job after two years if unable to find work in the private sector. |
| X | Require unwed teenage mothers to live with a parent or guardian (if possible) to receive benefits. |
| Limit the benefits given to single women if they have additional children. | |
| X | Provide child care services to welfare recipients who work or attend school. |
| X | Increase spending on programs that help homeless people find shelter and employment. |
| Make no substantial changes at this time. | |
| Eliminate the current American welfare system. | |
| Other | |
5. If elected to Congress, which of the following general principles or specific proposals will you support to address the problem of unemployment? | |
| X | Invest federal dollars in "investment tax credits" for companies who invest in worker training, purchase new equipment, and invest in research and development. |
| Increase funding for federal and state job-training programs. | |
| X | Create "enterprise zones" in urban areas with high unemployment by providing tax credits for new and expanding businesses. |
| X | Create "empowerment zones" in urban areas with high unemployment by providing government grants and federal assistance, in addition to tax credits, to new and expanding businesses. |
| Eliminate government regulations to encourage investment and economic expansion of the private sector. | |
| Allow the natural cycle of the market economy to create jobs without government intervention. | |
| X | Support an overhaul of the current unemployment system by combining current job-training programs within a new comprehensive "re-employment" system. |
| Other | |
6. If elected to Congress, which of the following general principles or specific proposals will you support concerning trade between America and foreign countries? | |
| The United States should grant "most favored nation" trading status based on the human rights record of each individual nation. | |
| X | The United States should raise tariffs on nations whose trade policies discourage the importation of American products. |
| X | The United States should eliminate tax breaks for companies who move American jobs to low-wage countries. |
| The United States should expand NAFTA into Latin America. | |
| X | The United States should pursue policies that will help open markets on the Pacific Rim. |
| The United States should stay out of international trade. | |
| Other | |
7. If elected to Congress, which of the following general principles or specific proposals will you support concerning the environment? | |
| Tax high-level energy users (businesses and individuals) to discourage excessive energy use and pay for environmental cleanup. | |
| Pass stronger clean water and clean air legislation. | |
| Phase in a prohibition of pollution causing products such as gas powered autos and lawn mowers. | |
| Consider further increasing federal taxes on gasoline and diesel fuels. | |
| X | Consider further increasing fees charged to mining companies who mine on public lands. |
| X | Consider further increasing fees charged to livestock owners who graze on federal lands. |
| Require the federal government to reimburse citizens who are required to limit the use of their privately owned lands due to environmental regulation. | |
| X | Encourage further market based strategies to clean up the environment such as pollution credits. |
| Amend the Endangered Species Act to allow for increased logging. | |
| X | Other |
Support Public/Private partnerships to develop a new generation of zero-polluting vehicles. |
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8. If elected to Congress, which of the following general principles or specific proposals will you support to change America's public education system? | |
| Establish a nationwide competency test for teachers and encourage states to adopt it. | |
| Establish "National Standards" for K-12 schools and encourage states to adopt them. | |
| Advocate school choice programs so that parents receive vouchers that can be used to send their children to participating schools. | |
| Allow low and middle income families to deduct college costs from their taxable income. | |
| X | Provide communities with increased federal aid and low interest loans for public school improvements. |
| Eliminate the U.S. Department of Education. | |
| Make no substantial changes at this time. | |
| X | Other |
Support Headstart, school-to-work legislation, and voluntary national standards. |
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9. If elected to Congress, which of the following general principles or specific proposals will you support concerning abortion? | |
| X | Abortions should be legal in all circumstances as long as the procedure is completed within the first trimester of the pregnancy. |
| Abortions should be legal only when the life of the mother is endangered. | |
| Abortions should be legal only when the pregnancy results from incest or rape, or when the life of the mother is endangered. | |
| A woman under the age of 18 should be required to notify a parent or guardian before having an abortion. | |
| A woman should be required to notify her spouse before having an abortion. | |
| States should be allowed to impose mandatory waiting periods before abortions are performed. | |
| Congress should eliminate federal funding for clinics and medical facilities that provide abortion services. | |
| Congress should eliminate abortion services from any federally funded health care plan. | |
| Congress should leave legislation on this issue to the states. | |
| Other | |
10. If elected to Congress, which of the following general principles or specific proposals will you support concerning American military and foreign policy? | |
| X | Congress should support defense conversion by funding job-placement and job-training programs for displaced military personnel and defense technology workers. |
| X | Congress should completely lift the ban on homosexuals in the military. |
| The United States should use military force only in cooperation with the United Nations unless threatened by a foreign power. | |
| The United States should lift the trade embargo against Cuba. | |
| Congress should increase foreign aid to the former republics of the Soviet Union to help in democratization and economic reform. | |
| X | Congress should impose strict sanctions against any nation selling technology or products that aid in the construction of nuclear weapons. |
| X | Congress should impose strict sanctions against any new nation attempting to develop nuclear weapons. |
| X | Congress should invest federal funds in the research and development of new defense technologies. |
| Other | |
| No | 1. Should the federal government adopt a policy of limiting or banning Political Action Committee (PAC) contributions to federal candidates? |
| Yes | 2. Do you support the principle of limiting the number of terms U.S. Senators and U.S. Representatives can serve in Congress? |
| Undecided | 3. Do you support the principle of a Balanced Budget Amendment to the Constitution? |
| No | 4. Do you support the principle of a Line-Item Veto for the President? |
| Undecided | 5. If elected to Congress, will you support an increase in the minimum wage? |
1. Please indicate the changes you will support (if any) concerning the level of funding for each of the listed issue areas. | |
| Maintain Status | National Defense |
| Greatly Increase | Law Enforcement |
| Maintain Status | International Drug Interdiction |
| Maintain Status | Federal Health Care Programs |
| Slightly Increase | AIDS Research |
| Maintain Status | Job Re-training Programs |
| Slightly Increase | Infrastructure (roads, bridges, etc.) |
| Maintain Status | Public Education |
| Slightly Decrease | Foreign Aid |
| Maintain Status | Environmental Clean Up and Enforcement |
| Other | |
| Other | |
2. Please indicate the changes you will support (if any) concerning the tax levels for each of the listed categories. | |
| Slightly Decrease | Capital Gains Taxes |
| Greatly Increase | Cigarette Taxes |
| Greatly Increase | Alcohol Taxes |
| Maintain Status | Taxes on Social Security Benefits Received by Retirees Earning More than $40,000 |
| Maintain Status | Income Taxes on Families Earning Less than $140,000 |
| Maintain Status | Income Taxes on Families Earning $140,000 or More |
| Maintain Status | Value-Added Taxes on U.S. Businesses |
| Maintain Status | Taxes on Foreign Companies in the United States |
| Other | |
| 1. If you are elected to Congress, what will be your two main legislative priorities? | |
a) I will continue to fight for funding for more police, more prisons, and tougher sentences for repeat violent criminals; I will fight to establish boot camps for young offenders. b) To create jobs in Southern California through Job Creation, Tax Credit, Profit Sharing incentives, a targeted capital gains tax cut, and support of scientific research at the University of California. |
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| 2. If either of your two main legislative priorities require government spending, where will this money come from? | |
Most of my priorities can be pursued without raising new taxes; Most are revenue neutral. |
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