Elizabeth Riley's Issue Positions (Political Courage Test)
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Elizabeth Riley did not provide voters with positions on key issues covered by the 2022 Political Courage Test, despite repeated requests from Vote Smart and voters like you.
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.
Wisconsin State Legislative Election 2012 Political Courage Test
| Pro-choice | a) Do you generally support pro-choice or pro-life legislation? | ||
| No | b) Should abortions be illegal after the first trimester of pregnancy? | ||
| Yes | c) Should abortion be legal when the pregnancy resulted from incest or rape? | ||
| Yes | d) Should abortion be legal when the life of the woman is endangered? | ||
| No | e) Do you support requiring parental notification before an abortion is performed on a minor? | ||
| No | f) Do you support requiring parental consent before an abortion is performed on a minor? | ||
| No | g) Do you support the prohibition of public funds for abortion procedures? | ||
| No | h) Do you support the prohibition of public funds for organizations that perform abortions? | ||
| There are things that happen behind the doors of other peoples' home about which none of us can know, except for the people in that home. Abortion needs to be safe, legal, and rare. In the case of abortion after the first trimester, abortion must still be legal. There are fetal anomalies, and problems related to maternal health that must be considered. | |||
1) State Spending:Using the key, indicate what state funding levels (#1-6) you support for the following general categories. Select one level per category; you may use a number more than once.2) State Taxes:Using the key,indicate what state tax levels (#1-6) you support for the following general categories. Select one level per category; you may use a number more than once.3) Budget Stabilization:Indicate which proposals you support (if any) for balancing Wisconsin's budget.
| Greatly Increase | a) Education (higher) | ||
| Greatly Increase | b) Education (K-12) | ||
| Greatly Increase | c) Environment | ||
| Greatly Increase | d) Health care | ||
| Greatly Increase | e) Law enforcement/corrections | ||
| Greatly Increase | f) Transportation/infrastructure | ||
| Slightly Increase | g) Welfare | ||
| Slightly Increase | a) Alcohol taxes | ||
| Greatly Increase | b) Cigarette taxes | ||
| Greatly Increase | c) Corporate taxes | ||
| Slightly Increase | d) Gas/Oil taxes | ||
| Slightly Increase | e) Property taxes | ||
| Slightly Increase | f) Sales taxes | ||
| Greatly Decrease | g) Income taxes (low-income families) | ||
| Maintain Status | h) Income taxes (mid-income families) | ||
| Greatly Increase | i) Income taxes (high-income families) | ||
| a) Tapping into Wisconsin's Budget Stabilization Fund | |||
| No | b) Increasing tuition rates at public universities | ||
| No | c) Reducing state employee salaries AND/OR pensions | ||
| No | d) Instituting mandatory furloughs AND/OR layoffs for state employees | ||
| No | e) Reducing benefits for Medicaid recipients | ||
| I understand we can't "greatly increase" everything. But maybe we need to now, and we can decrease later. Educated people are healthier people. Educated people get better jobs that pay more money. A clean environment leads to healthier people. Better transportation leads to cleaner air and water. Until we can create more jobs, "welfare" must be at least maintained or even increased. Increased funding for health care can go into preventative program, which will save a lot of money in the future. But we have to build the base before we can decrease funding. | |||
| The alcohol tax is paid by the manufacturers of alcohol, and they seem in line to me. If there is a tax increase on alcohol, it should be seen by the consumers. Cigarettes are just a way to die faster and spend a lot of money in the process so they need big tax increases. Loopholes need to be closed for corporate taxes, and they should be required to pay state income taxes. Property taxes have to be flexible due to demand of schools, infrastructure, etc. Low income people should not have to pay the percentage of taxes they do. | |||
| I don't know what the Budget Stabilization Fund is and I don't have time to look it up today. A cursory web search did not bring it up. Increasing tuition just adds to the already-heavy burden of student debt. State employees work hard for and earn their salaries and pensions. What has happened with Act 10 to public employees is devastating. Let's collect taxes from corporations to help fund decent salaries for our very educated teachers and other state employees. Medicaid can't be cut. I have experience with too many families with disabled children to allow for that. | |||
a) Do you support limits on the following types of contributions for state candidates?
| Yes | 1) Individual | ||
| Yes | 2) Political Action Committee | ||
| Yes | 3) Corporate | ||
| Yes | 4) Political Party | ||
| Yes | b) Should candidates for state office be encouraged to meet voluntary spending limits? | ||
| Yes | c) Do you support requiring full and timely disclosure of campaign finance information? | ||
| Yes | d) Do you support the use of an independent AND/OR bipartisan commission for redistricting? | ||
| No | e) Do you support requiring a government-issued photo identification in order to vote at the polls? | ||
| No | f) Do you support limiting recall elections in Wisconsin? | ||
| I don't like PACs. I don't like corporations buying elections. But as long as the corrupt individuals who run those corporations are spending like madmen to buy elections in which tea party candidates are featured, skewing elections, then PACs have to be considered. We need to do away with Citizen's United. We need to make all campaign contributions public, with the names of people who have contributed. And voter ID laws are thinly-veiled voter suppression laws. Thinking people should know that. Recall elections in Wisconsin, as elsewhere, are sometimes necessary, since we haven't the mechanism to recall laws. | |||
| No | a) Do you support capital punishment for certain crimes? | ||
| Yes | b) Do you support alternatives to incarceration for certain non-violent offenders, such as mandatory counseling or substance abuse treatment? | ||
| Yes | c) Do you support decriminalizing the possession of small amounts of marijuana? | ||
| No | d) Should a minor accused of a violent crime be prosecuted as an adult? | ||
| No | e) Should a minor who sends sexually-explicit or nude photos by cell phone face criminal charges? | ||
| Yes | f) Do you support the enforcement of federal immigration laws by state and local police? | ||
| Some of these answers should be "it depends". Minors who send sexually-explicit photos may not understand the impact of their actions. Should they be made to understand that this is wrong? Yes. But criminal charges, while they may be necessary in some cases, are probably not necessary in all. As far as immigration, I believe that there is room for more people than some would say. If there is a federal law saying state and local police need to be doing something, they should either be doing it or they should explain why they're not and work to change it. | |||
| No | a) Do you support reducing government regulations on the private sector? | ||
| Yes | b) Do you support increased state funding for job-training programs that re-train displaced workers? | ||
| Yes | c) Do you support expanding access to unemployment benefits? | ||
| Yes | d) Do you support providing financial incentives to the private sector for the purpose of job creation? | ||
| Yes | e) Do you support increased spending on infrastructure projects for the purpose of job creation? | ||
| Yes | f) Do you support using public funds to construct a high speed rail line in Wisconsin? | ||
| Yes | g) Do you support providing direct financial assistance to homeowners facing foreclosure? | ||
| No | h) Do you support the elimination of public worker collective bargaining? | ||
| Financial incentives to the private sector for job creation MUST be for actual, real, true small business. Not small business the way it is defined by Candidate Romney. Banks need to be held responsible for making bad loans, and provide relief to homeowners under water. As far as collective bargaining, we need unions now in America more than we ever have. Over the last 30 years, with the dismantling of unions, wages for workers have been stagnant or have significantly declined, while CEO pay has skyrocketed. CEO's can still get rich with unions. But workers MUST have that voice. | |||
| No | a) Do you support the national Common Core State Standards initiative? | ||
| No | b) Do you support a merit pay system for teachers? | ||
| Yes | c) Is the tenure process for public school teachers producing effective teachers? | ||
| No | d) Should parents be allowed to use vouchers to send their children to any school? | ||
| No | e) Do you support state funding for charter schools? | ||
| Yes | f) Do you support the state government providing college students with financial aid? | ||
| Yes | g) Should illegal immigrants who graduate from Wisconsin high schools be eligible for in-state tuition at public universities? | ||
| In theory "common core" works. But not in practice. We need a national curriculum, which is different. Merit pay is a bad idea for many reasons. I only have 100 years so cannot elaborate. Tenure works very well. If there are "bad" teachers, administration should do its job, document, and then fire those teachers. Vouchers and choice are ruining public education. Private schools don't have to accept students who are expensive or who they don't want. For students who need financial aid, the state should show its commitment to its own future by helping defray the cost of higher education. | |||
| Yes | a) Do you support state funding for the development of alternative energy? | ||
| No | b) Do you support state funding for the development of traditional domestic energy sources (e.g. coal, natural gas, oil)? | ||
| Yes | c) Do you support state funding for improvements to Wisconsin's energy infrastructure? | ||
| Yes | d) Do you support state funding for open space preservation? | ||
| Yes | e) Do you support enacting environmental regulations aimed at reducing the effects of climate change? | ||
| No | f) Do you support eliminating some regulations on mining in northern Wisconsin in order to stimulate local economic development? | ||
| We must get off fossil fuels, no matter where they originate. Rather than putting our financial resources there, we should put them toward alternative energy sources. Wisconsin needs to keep and maintain its lovely and diverse open spaces. We also ALL need to do what we can to mitigate the effects of climate change. That's another reason to focus on renewable, rather than fossil fuel, energy. Mining regulations and the permitting process are stringent for a reason. We should not be making any changes to that at this time. | |||
| Yes | a) Do you support restrictions on the purchase and possession of guns? | ||
| Yes | b) Should background checks be required on gun sales between private citizens at gun shows? | ||
| Yes | c) Should citizens be allowed to carry concealed guns? | ||
| Yes | d) Should a license be required for gun possession? | ||
| I do not carry a concealed weapon. I wish that people were not quite so willing to believe that they are all safer if everyone has guns on their person. But the laws have been passed allowing it, and I will not do anything to alter that. However, background checks are necessary wherever and whenever gun purchases are being made. Licensing for all guns should be mandatory. | |||
| Yes | a) Do you support a universally-accessible, publicly-administered health insurance option? | ||
| Yes | b) Do you support expanding access to health care through commercial health insurance reform? | ||
| Yes | c) Do you support interstate health insurance compacts? | ||
| Yes | d) Do you support requiring individuals to purchase health care insurance? | ||
| No | e) Do you support monetary limits on damages that can be collected in malpractice lawsuits? | ||
| Yes | f) Do you support allowing doctors to prescribe marijuana to their patients for medicinal purposes? | ||
| In my mind, a single-payer system is the only system that will really do anything to decrease the costs of health care. Until we get there, however, commercial health insurance companies will have to reform. Lower CEO pay, cut administrative costs, and they must stop denying claims with the alarming frequency they deny them now. As far as lawsuits, I think that people who have been injured DUE TO NEGLIGENCE deserve any monetary award to which they are entitled. But we must remember that accidents happen. Nothing is without risk. There are some frivolous lawsuits, but we can't cut everybody. | |||
| No | a) Should marriage only be between one man and one woman? | ||
| Yes | b) Should same-sex couples be allowed to form civil unions? | ||
| Yes | c) Do you support the inclusion of sexual orientation in Wisconsin's anti-discrimination laws? | ||
| Yes | d) Do you support the inclusion of gender identity in Wisconsin's anti-discrimination laws? | ||
| Same sex couples deserve the same rights as everybody else has. Rights should not be denied to anybody because someone is made uncomfortable by the thought that people of the same sex might be attracted to each other. We live in a society that rewards marriage--there are tax benefits, and spousal benefits we can only receive when married. Same sex couples deserve those same benefits. | |||
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