Mitch Daniels, Jr.'s Issue Positions (Political Courage Test)
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Due to a later filing deadline or other circumstances delaying entry into our database, Mitch Daniels, Jr. did not receive the 2012 Political Courage 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.
Indiana Gubernatorial 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. | |||
| g) Require clinics to give parental notification before performing abortions on minors. | |||
| I support the prohibition on partial-birth abortion | |||
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.
| Slightly Increase | a) Education (Higher) | ||
| Slightly Increase | b) Education (K-12) | ||
| Maintain Status | c) Emergency preparedness | ||
| Maintain Status | d) Environment | ||
| Maintain Status | e) Health care | ||
| Maintain Status | f) Law enforcement | ||
| Maintain Status | g) Transportation and highway infrastructure | ||
| Maintain Status | h) Welfare | ||
| Maintain Status | a) Alcohol taxes | ||
| Maintain Status | b) Cigarette taxes | ||
| c) Corporate taxes | |||
| Maintain Status | d) Gasoline taxes | ||
| Maintain Status | e) Income taxes (incomes below $75,000) | ||
| Maintain Status | f) Income taxes (incomes above $75,000) | ||
| Maintain Status | g) Property taxes | ||
| Maintain Status | h) Sales taxes | ||
| Maintain Status | i) Vehicle taxes | ||
| 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? | ||
| Yes | 4) Do you support an Indiana state constitutional amendment capping property taxes? | ||
| Undecided | 5) Do you support an Indiana state constitutional amendment prohibiting property taxes? | ||
| I expect a tight budget next year, as revenue growth is likely to be lower than usual due to the effects of the slowing national economy. As always, my first priority will be a balanced budget. Our highway plan is fully funded, and we launched a new healthcare program for the uninsured that does not require general fund revenues. We have kept Medicaid spending growth to an average of 5% -- well below the national average -- without cutting services. | |||
| I support an eventual reduction in Indiana's relatively high corporate income tax. Our plan to cut and cap property taxes resulted in the largest tax reduction in Indiana history. | |||
| 1) I support of federal legislation that would give states the option to require out of state sellers to collect and remit sales tax on items sold over the internet to Hoosiers as a better means to ensure collection than each consumer self assessing tax and remitting with their income tax return and to level the playing field for local retailers. I support the eventual elimination of property taxes, but not in the near future, because other taxes would have to be increased to unacceptable rates to make up the loss of revenue for local government. | |||
Indicate which principles you support (if any) regarding campaign finance and government reform.c) Do you support limiting the following types of contributions to gubernatorial candidates?
| Yes | a) Do you support the current limit of terms for Indiana governors? | ||
| No | b) Do you support limiting the number of terms for Indiana state senators and representatives? | ||
| No | 1) Individual | ||
| No | 2) PAC | ||
| No | 3) Corporate | ||
| No | 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 Indiana participate in the federal REAL ID program? | ||
| Yes | g) Do you support prohibiting municipalities from involuntarily annexing neighborhoods or towns? | ||
| Question "g" -- I do recognize the problems created for municipalities when new developments are built with the expectation that municipal services will eventually be provided even though municipal taxes are not paid. In most instances, fortunately, annexations are voluntary. When they are not, other solutions should be found. | |||
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 Indiana. | ||
| 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. | ||
| e) Decriminalize the possession of small amounts of marijuana. | |||
| X | f) Minors accused of a violent crime should be prosecuted as adults. | ||
| g) Support state and local law enforcement officials enforcing federal immigration laws. | |||
| h) Support hate crime legislation. | |||
| a) Indiana does not currently need additional prison capacity. If/when it does, I will support creating it. c) and d) My administration has created a number of prisoner re-entry and community corrections programs to prevent recidivism and provide alternatives to incarceration for appropriate offenders. g) Not without significant financial support from the federal government to pay for the large costs that would be associated with such an expansion of state and local police responsibilities. | |||
Indicate which principles you support (if any) regarding education.
| a) Support state funding of universal pre-K programs. | |||
| b) Support federal education standards and testing requirements for K-12 students (No Child Left Behind). | |||
| X | 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. | ||
| 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. | ||
| X | 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 Indiana to pay in-state tuition at public universities. | |||
| d) Indiana's new assessment system requires students to pass certain key high school courses to graduate, rather than an exit exam f) In my first term I did not support vouchers for private or religious education g) teacher contracts are negotiated locally in Indiana i) I have proposed a new program to use revenue from the state lottery to guarantee all IN high school graduates two years of free tuition at our community college or the equivalent amount in cash to use at another IN college or university. | |||
Indicate which principles you support (if any) regarding employment.
| a) Increase funding for state job-training programs that re-train displaced workers and teach skills needed in todays job market. | |||
| X | b) Reduce state government regulations on the private sector. | ||
| X | 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) Include sexual orientation in Indiana's anti-discrimination laws. | |||
| g) Include gender identity in Indiana's anti-discrimination laws. | |||
| h) Increase the state minimum wage. | |||
| i) Support laws that prevent employers from dismissing employees at will. | |||
| j) Support financial punishments for those who knowingly employ illegal immigrants. | |||
| X | k) Support increased work requirements for able-bodied welfare recipients. | ||
| l) Increase funding for employment and job training programs for welfare recipients. | |||
| Many of these questions inquire about "increased funding" but I believe that the issue in many instances is not funding levels but the effectiveness of current programs and the efficiency with which current dollars are spent. There is much room for improving our training of current workers without increasing total spending. Indiana currently spends more than $150 million on child care for low income families and we've increased the number of children served by more than 5,000 over the past three years. | |||
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). | ||
| X | c) Support providing financial incentives to farms that produce biofuel crops. | ||
| X | 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 Indiana's power generating and transmission facilities. | ||
| X | f) Support funding for open space preservation. | ||
| X | g) Limit carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases linked to global warming. | ||
| h) Enact environmental regulations even if they are stricter than federal law. | |||
| Indiana has an excellent record on alternative energy, with growing capacity for wind generation, biomass, geothermal, biofuels, and clean coal (including carbon storage and sequestration). We are building one of the nation's largest wind farms in the northeast part of our state, and have one of the largest bio-diesel production facilities in the world being constructed. We have a "brownfields" program to remediate contaminated sites. We completed the state's largest acquisition of conservation land in 2006. | |||
Indicate which principles you support (if any) regarding guns.
| No | 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? | ||
| Yes | e) Do you support current state restrictions on the purchase and possession of guns? | ||
| f) Other or expanded principles | |||
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. | ||
| f) Legalize physician assisted suicide in Indiana. | |||
| g) Support allowing doctors to prescribe marijuana to their patients for medicinal purposes. | |||
| We have created a medical error reporting system for all hospitals in Indiana. We have created a health insurance plan for the uninsured that we hope to cover 130,000 Hoosiers, without raising taxes or using general fund revenue. Our INShape plan has received national recognition for its efforts to help Hoosiers lose weight, stop smoking, and adopt other healthy lifestyles. We've invested more than $20 million in trail funding to encourage our citizens to be more active. | |||
['Indicate which principles you support (if any) regarding social issues.', 'Legislative Priorities']
| No | a) Should Indiana recognize civil unions between same-sex couples? | ||
| No | b) Should same-sex couples be allowed to marry? | ||
| No | c) Should Indiana 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? | ||
| Yes | 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? | ||
| j) Should Indiana continue affirmative action programs? | |||
| No | 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? | ||
| k) I have no moral objection to research conducted on adult stem cells. In fact, some very interesting and important work in this area is being done at the Indiana University School of Medicine. I do not in principle oppose state support for such research, but in general I believe that our state's limited resources for investment should be focused on later stage research efforts that can support the commercialization of new discoveries and the creation of new companies and jobs from them. If/when adult stem cell research gets to that stage, state investment may make sense. | |||
| 1. A constitutional amendment to make permanent the property tax caps passed earlier this year by our legislature 2. A taxpayer "refund" when state revenues exceed requirements for operating budgets and adequate reserves 3. A series of education initiatives aimed at directing more school spending into our classrooms, attracting top math and science graduates into teaching, increasing funding for full day kindergarten (in our budget), and improving access to higher education by guaranteeing all high school graduates two years of free tuition at our community college or the equivaent in cash to use elsewhere (paid with lottery funds) | |||
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