Laura Cooper's Issue Positions (Political Courage Test)
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Laura Cooper has refused to provide voters with positions on key issues covered by the 2016 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.
Oregon State Legislative Election 2014 Political Courage Test
| 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? | ||
| Yes | e) Do you support requiring parental notification before an abortion is performed on a minor? | ||
| Yes | f) Do you support requiring parental consent before an abortion is performed on a minor? | ||
| Yes | g) Do you support the prohibition of public funds for abortion procedures? | ||
| Yes | h) Do you support the prohibition of public funds for organizations that perform abortions? | ||
| I believe that because abortion views are derived from sincerely held issues of conscience for each person that government should have no power to coerce one way or the other -- meaning no forced decisions either way and no funding for decisions either way. Abortion should not be illegal when government has no power to regulate; however, abortions should not be encouraged in any way -- including through funding directly or indirectly. Until we have a human life amendment, no statutory law can regulate these decisions constitutionally. | |||
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 Oregon's budget.
| Maintain Status | a) Education (higher) | ||
| Maintain Status | b) Education (K-12) | ||
| Maintain Status | c) Environment | ||
| Maintain Status | d) Health care | ||
| Maintain Status | e) Law enforcement/corrections | ||
| Maintain Status | f) Transportation/infrastructure | ||
| Greatly Decrease | g) Welfare | ||
| Maintain Status | a) Alcohol taxes | ||
| Maintain Status | b) Cigarette taxes | ||
| Greatly Decrease | c) Corporate taxes | ||
| Maintain Status | d) Gas/Oil taxes | ||
| Maintain Status | e) Property taxes | ||
| Maintain Status | f) Income taxes (low-income families) | ||
| Greatly Decrease | g) Income taxes (mid-income families) | ||
| Maintain Status | h) Income taxes (high-income families) | ||
| No | a) Tapping into Oregon's "rainy day" fund | ||
| No | b) Increasing tuition rates at public universities | ||
| No | c) Reducing or eliminating public worker collective bargaining | ||
| Yes | d) Reducing state employee salaries AND/OR pensions | ||
| No | e) Instituting mandatory furloughs AND/OR layoffs for state employees | ||
| No | f) Reducing benefits for Medicaid recipients | ||
| I believe our state government wastes a great deal of money and until it is a better steward of our dollars it should not seek more; that being said, I believe that we should reallocate how money is being spent and allow citizens more direct control of dollars spent on their behalf; for example, I would support tuition vouchers for K-12 to be used in the school of the parent's choice. We would not have to spend more money to get better education; we just need to eliminate layers of educrats and streamline how the money is spent. | |||
| Government should not demand more of our dollars from any source until it can show us it is a worthy steward of those they already have; also, government should not demand a higher percentage of dollars from citizens until the economy of Oregon produces those dollars for the citizens first. In other words, government should share the pain or pleasure of the economy other Oregonians are experiencing. | |||
| Improving Oregon's economy will increase revenues. Until that happens, the state should not demand more money -- period. | |||
a) Do you support limits on the following types of contributions for state candidates?
| No | 1) Individual | ||
| No | 2) Political Action Committee | ||
| No | 3) Corporate | ||
| No | 4) Political Party | ||
| No | b) Should candidates for state office be encouraged to meet voluntary spending limits? | ||
| No | c) Do you support requiring full and timely disclosure of campaign finance information? | ||
| No | d) Do you support the use of an independent AND/OR bipartisan commission for redistricting? | ||
| Yes | e) Do you support requiring a government-issued photo identification in order to vote at the polls? | ||
| Campaign finance reporting does not make campaigns cleaner or cheaper -- it simply operates in reality as an "incumbent protection" racket. Until we have some reason to think it will make campaigns fairer in reality, I will oppose all efforts to further regulate political speech -- even if it is exercised through expenditures in campaigns. | |||
| 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 legalizing the possession of small amounts of marijuana? | ||
| Yes | 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? | ||
| e) "Explicit" is a matter of opinion and crimes should not be so subjective; also, cell phones are not public venues. a) I do not support capital punishment because our system is so frought with potential for error that I personally believe a punishment so final cannot be implemented even-handedly. However, I am a staunch defender of the Rule of Law and thus I would support the execution of any sentence imposed by law. c) The War on Drugs has been a disaster and I believe we need to apply the lessons of prohibition to it. | |||
| Yes | a) Do you support reducing government regulations on the private sector? | ||
| No | b) Do you support increased state funding for job-training programs that re-train displaced workers? | ||
| No | c) Do you support expanding access to unemployment benefits? | ||
| No | d) Do you support providing financial incentives to the private sector for the purpose of job creation? | ||
| No | e) Do you support government spending as a means of promoting economic growth? | ||
| No | f) Do you support providing direct financial assistance to homeowners facing foreclosure? | ||
| No | g) Do you support an increase of the minimum wage? | ||
| No | h) Do you support expanding liquor sales? | ||
| d) "Incentives" obtained from government are just a form of cronyism; real and lasting job creation will come from a market need that requires no government incentive. | |||
| No | a) Do you support the national Common Core State Standards initiative? | ||
| No | b) Do you support a merit pay system for teachers? | ||
| No | c) Is the tenure process for public school teachers producing effective teachers? | ||
| Yes | d) Should parents be allowed to use vouchers to send their children to any school? | ||
| Yes | e) Do you support state funding for charter schools? | ||
| No | f) Do you support the state government providing college students with financial aid? | ||
| No | g) Should illegal immigrants who graduate from Oregon high schools be eligible for in-state tuition at public universities? | ||
| b) The problem is that we have no definition for teacher "merit" that the community has ever agreed upon. f) The best state financial aid would be lower tuition for everyone; direct financial aid is provided unequally among students and is less economically efficient because of administrative costs. g) Immigration laws are a fundamental protection of national sovereignty and enforcement of them is a fundamental tenet of Rule of Law. In-state tuition is a benefit for citizens who have paid taxes; if immigrants want those benefits, then they should seek out ways of immigrating through lawful means. | |||
| No | 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 Oregon's energy infrastructure? | ||
| No | d) Do you support state funding for open space preservation? | ||
| No | e) Do you support government regulations of greenhouse gas emissions? | ||
| I do not support government choosing winners and losers in a private marketplace. e) I support giving local utilities the OPTION of deciding what to do about greenhouse gas emissions rather than a top-down state edict. | |||
| No | a) Do you support restrictions on the purchase and possession of guns? | ||
| No | 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? | ||
| No | d) Should a license be required for gun possession? | ||
| The second amendment is the practical implementation of the right to life. | |||
| No | 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 Medicaid expansion under the Affordable Care Act? | ||
| No | e) Do you support requiring individuals to purchase health care insurance? | ||
| No | f) Do you support monetary limits on damages that can be collected in malpractice lawsuits? | ||
| Yes | g) Do you support allowing doctors to prescribe marijuana to their patients for medicinal purposes? | ||
| h) Other or expanded principles: | |||
| a) Do you support same-sex marriage? | |||
| Yes | b) Do you support the inclusion of sexual orientation in Oregon's anti-discrimination laws? | ||
| No | c) Do you support the inclusion of gender identity in Oregon's anti-discrimination laws? | ||
| a) as with abortion, this is a matter of personal conscience that the government should neither encourage nor discourage. As a legislator, I would neither support nor oppose it, and I would decline to take any government action one way or the other. As far as marriage licensing is concerned, if the state wants to pick and choose, it should get out of the business of marriage licensing altogether. | |||
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