Alma Wetzker's Issue Positions (Political Courage Test)
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Alma Wetzker 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.
Minnesota State Legislative Election 2014 Political Courage Test
| Pro-life | a) Do you generally support pro-choice or pro-life legislation? | ||
| Yes | 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? | ||
| No | h) Do you support the prohibition of public funds for organizations that perform abortions? | ||
| Making abortion illegal would work about as well as making drugs or guns illegal. Abortion needs to remain a viable option for a physician and a patient to decide on together. Having dedicated "medical Facilities" that perform no other procedure is nuts. That is what hospitals are for. If a woman's life is endangered, a hospital is the best place for an abortion, if that is what the patient decides with her physician. Minors, by definition, are not the best at judgement. Minors need the consent of a parent to prevent a scared young girl from making a regretted decision. | |||
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 Minnesota's budget.
| Maintain Status | a) Education (higher) | ||
| Maintain Status | b) Education (K-12) | ||
| Slightly Decrease | c) Environment | ||
| Greatly Decrease | d) Health care | ||
| Maintain Status | e) Law enforcement/corrections | ||
| Slightly Decrease | f) Transportation/infrastructure | ||
| Maintain Status | 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 | ||
| Slightly Decrease | f) Sales taxes | ||
| Maintain Status | g) Income taxes (low-income families) | ||
| Maintain Status | h) Income taxes (mid-income families) | ||
| Slightly Decrease | i) Income taxes (high-income families) | ||
| No | a) Tapping into Minnesota's "rainy day" fund | ||
| No | b) Increasing tuition rates at public universities | ||
| Yes | c) Reducing or eliminating public worker collective bargaining | ||
| No | d) Reducing state employee salaries AND/OR pensions | ||
| Yes | e) Instituting mandatory furloughs AND/OR layoffs for state employees | ||
| No | f) Reducing benefits for Medicaid recipients | ||
| Spending may be part of the problem, but it is more WHERE the dollars are being spent rather than the dollars overall. There needs to be a focus on spending on solutions that have been shown to work, rather than the best of intentions. | |||
| Taxes were just greatly increased on some areas of the economy, those need to be reversed to restart a stalling economy. | |||
| Minnesota is required to have a balanced budget. There is little need to act to change it. | |||
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? | ||
| Yes | 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? | ||
| Free speech also means political speech. Anonymous speech was a lifeblood of the revolution and the founding fathers, we have already seen where political contribution to causes has damaged employment opportunities. The public has no right to know, but people do have the first amendment right to free speech. A photo ID is easy to issue to everyone in other countries, why is it hard to get in America? Until we have it, there will continue to be the allegation of vote fraud. Let''s just fix it from the beginning and stop that argument. | |||
| Yes | 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? | ||
| 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? | ||
| g) Other or expanded principles: | |||
| Yes | 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? | ||
| 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? | ||
| We need to get back to a free and open market with a functioning economy. Part of the problem we have today is government meddling in the market by demanding outcomes that are unsupported. Government regulation is needed to keep markets open. Demanding market results has never worked to anyone's benefit anywhere. | |||
| No | a) Do you support the national Common Core State Standards initiative? | ||
| Yes | 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? | ||
| 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 Minnesota high schools be eligible for in-state tuition at public universities? | ||
| Our city schools are absolutely failing our minority students. If vouchers work as a chance to let students escape failing public schools, then that needs to be an option. Top down solutions are seldom in the best interests of everyone. I support much more local control of curriculum and student assessments. Having standardized tests at the national level makes it far too tempting to do many inappropriate things. Among them, teaching to the test and evaluating teachers on student results. Both are poor decisions. | |||
| 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)? | ||
| No | c) Do you support state funding for improvements to Minnesota's energy infrastructure? | ||
| Yes | d) Do you support state funding for open space preservation? | ||
| No | e) Do you support government regulations of greenhouse gas emissions? | ||
| The energy sector should be self-supporting at this point. As regulated utilities, they should have the profits available to make updates and improvements to the grid as a cost of doing business. | |||
| 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 nine rights in the bill of rights are intended and designed to work together to make a complete whole. It is not a buffet where you get a double helping of free speech but pass on something else. That is what the Constitution says and means. It is time we started respecting the entire bill of rights as a whole. | |||
| 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? | ||
| No | c) Do you support interstate health insurance compacts? | ||
| No | d) Do you support Medicaid expansion under the Affordable Care Act? | ||
| No | e) Do you support requiring individuals to purchase health care insurance? | ||
| Yes | f) Do you support monetary limits on damages that can be collected in malpractice lawsuits? | ||
| No | g) Do you support allowing doctors to prescribe marijuana to their patients for medicinal purposes? | ||
| We need to get back to a free market with health care. I am concerned with the idea of telling children that cigarettes are dangerous, but marijuana is medicine. Marijuana has studied bad a permanent effects when used only once a week by minors. It is arguably more dangerous than tobacco. Doctors have no business recommending it, even if it is legal. | |||
| No | a) Do you support same-sex marriage? | ||
| No | b) Do you support the inclusion of sexual orientation in Minnesota's anti-discrimination laws? | ||
| No | c) Do you support the inclusion of gender identity in Minnesota's anti-discrimination laws? | ||
| Humans are social creatures. When you defy social customs, there will be social consequences, no matter what the law says. Known problems and individuals are easier to defend against. Let people say what they will, if it is ugly, they will face the social consequences. | |||
| The last two years have been terrible for business in Minnesota, especially small business. We need to peel back the regulations and fees that hit the providers of jobs to keep Minnesota a great place to do business. Small businesses are the primary creator of jobs that pay well, enabling them to grow will help all of Minnesota, and provide opportunity for everyone. We need to focus on working solutions rather than ideology and good intentions. Not all taxes and regulations are bad. When everyone makes more, the State has more to help everyone. |
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