John Kiehne's Issue Positions (Political Courage Test)
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John Kiehne did not provide voters with positions on key issues covered by the 2024 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.
Missouri State Legislative Election 2020 Political Courage Test
| Pro-choice | a) Do you generally support pro-choice or pro-life legislation? | ||
| Yes | b) Do you support legalizing abortion when the pregnancy resulted from incest or rape? | ||
| No | c) Do you support the prohibition of public funds for organizations that perform abortions? | ||
| I believe in a woman's right to choose. I believe that all women should have access to quality, affordable reproductive care. I believe in providing age-appropriate sexual education to youth, providing access to contraceptives, and extending insurance coverage for contraceptives to adult women. I believe that we should work to prevent women from wanting an abortion to begin with by working to provide more opportunity and equity as well as better education and access to reproductive services for women regardless of income or zip code. Exceptions MUST be made in the case of rape, incest, or life of the mother. | |||
| No | a) In order to balance the budget, do you support reducing state employee salaries AND/OR pensions? | ||
| Yes | b) In order to balance the budget, do you support an income tax increase on any tax bracket? | ||
| In Missouri Republicans have passed numerous tax cuts for the wealthy that have diminished our State's ability to pay our bills. In addition, due to the coronavirus pandemic, our revenues are even lower and it's virtually impossible to create a balanced budget based on our current economic environment. While Federal CARES funds have helped to provide support to buoy our budgetary obligations in light of a diminished revenue stream we were already struggling to pay our teachers, State workers, and maintain our roads and bridges. We must act to eliminate waste and improve the efficiency and effectiveness of government functions. | |||
| Yes | a) Do you support a limit on campaign contributions to state candidates? | ||
| Yes | b) Do you support the regulation of indirect campaign contributions from corporations and unions? | ||
| Yes | c) Do you support the use of an independent AND/OR bipartisan commission for redistricting? | ||
| No | d) Do you support requiring a government-issued photo identification in order to vote at the polls? | ||
| Yes | e) Do you support automatic voter registration? | ||
| I believe that our government should always work to empower voters to exercise their Constitutional Right to vote. Unfortunately, Republican legislators in Missouri actively advocate to make it more difficult for Missouri citizens to vote, write Legislative Districts to favor Republican candidates, and make it more difficult to approve petitions, put ballot initiatives on the ballot and pass them as well. We need to diminish the influence of money in our elections and stay ahead of the curve regarding alternative means to make large campaign contributions such as PACs to support or oppose candidates with virtually unlimited amounts of money. | |||
| No | a) Do you support capital punishment for certain crimes? | ||
| No | b) Should an individual under 18 accused of a violent crime be prosecuted as an adult? | ||
| Yes | c) Do you support the enforcement of federal immigration laws by state and local police? | ||
| No | d) Do you support the use of private prisons in Missouri? | ||
| No | e) Do you support mandatory minimum sentences for non-violent drug offenders? | ||
| Yes | f) Do you support prohibiting texting while driving? | ||
| Yes | g) Should law enforcement officers be required to live in the municipalities that they patrol? | ||
| I believe that in order to properly address crime in Missouri we must dig to the root of the problems causing crime instead of waiting for crimes to already occur to act. Factors such as poverty, mental illness, lack of opportunity, etc. need to be addressed with a long-term comprehensive strategy that doesn't just involve law enforcement but also more progressive judicial policies like Diversion Courts and a more holistic approach to addressing crime in communities by collaborating with social workers, Healthcare providers, educational and training entities, faith-based organizations and supports and so on. | |||
| Yes | a) Do you support state government spending as a means of promoting economic growth? | ||
| No | b) Do you support lowering state income taxes as a means of promoting economic growth? | ||
| No | c) Do you support reducing government regulations on the private sector? | ||
| No | d) Do you support requiring welfare applicants to pass a drug test in order to receive benefits? | ||
| Yes | e) Do you support an increase of the minimum wage of Missouri? | ||
| Yes | f) Do you support requiring employers to provide paid family leave? | ||
| Yes | g) Do you support providing financial relief to businesses AND/OR corporations negatively impacted by the state of national emergency for COVID-19? | ||
| We must create and support government policies that benefit both workers and businesses. I don't believe that effective governance in this regard is mutually exclusive. While we should avoid onerous regulations we must also be mindful to hold businesses accountable for unethical and/or harmful business practices. We must support our workers who are the backbone of our economy by always advocating for higher wages and better opportunities, as well as for more favorable conditions for businesses. As a small businessman for decades I appreciate the desire to profit but I oppose harming our workers in the process of doing so. | |||
| Yes | a) Do you support adopting federal education standards in Missouri? | ||
| No | b) Do you support state funding for charter schools? | ||
| Yes | c) Do you support increasing teacher salaries AND/OR benefits in Missouri? | ||
| Yes | d) Should immigrants unlawfully present in the United States who graduate from Missouri high schools be eligible for in-state tuition at public universities? | ||
| I don't support State funding for Charter Schools (which often operate without the oversight, academic standards, and community involvement of a standard public school). I also oppose vouchers as too many of our public schools are chronically underfunded and struggling as it is. In regard to teacher pay Missouri teachers are some of the lowest-paid teachers in the U.S. while having to achieve high levels of educational attainment in order to be qualified to teach. Missouri school districts should be allowed the freedom to craft their own curricula and create their calendar in order to best serve their particular students. | |||
| Yes | a) Do you support state funding for the development of renewable energy (e.g. solar, wind, geo-thermal)? | ||
| Yes | b) Do you support government regulations of greenhouse gas emissions? | ||
| Yes | c) Do you support increasing state funding for clean drinking water initiatives? | ||
| We only have one planet to live on and we must treat it with dignity, care and respect. Global issues like global warming are creating a wide variety of hazardous situations on our planet including extreme and unpredictable weather patterns, wildfires, droughts, increased likelihood of extreme weather like tornadoes, floods and hurricanes, etc. In addition, in our area issues such as pollution from a coal-fired power plant, environmental pollution from unscrupulous business practices, etc. put our communities in danger for a wide variety reasons which has and will for the time being require governmental intervention in order to save lives. | |||
| Yes | a) Do you generally support gun-control legislation? | ||
| Yes | b) Should background checks be required on gun sales between private citizens at gun shows? | ||
| Yes | c) Should teachers be allowed to bring guns into the classroom after passing gun safety training? | ||
| No | d) Should a license be required for gun ownership? | ||
| As someone who grew up shooting a variety of firearms I appreciate the interest and passion for guns. However, I was also taught to respect firearms as they are deadly weapons that can be very destructive in the wrong hands. I respect American citizens' Right to Bear Arms but I also respect efforts to prevent and punish criminal behavior. While the vast majority of gun owners are responsible, law-abiding citizens there's no doubt that gun violence continues to plague our communities from urban to rural. I support common sense gun regulations to keep Missouri residents safe. | |||
| Yes | a) Should the state government increase funding for treatment facilities to combat opioid abuse? | ||
| Yes | b) Do you support Medicaid expansion through Missouri's health care programs? | ||
| No | c) Do you support requiring individuals to purchase health care insurance? | ||
| Yes | d) Do you support legislation that grants citizens the right to choose to die through euthanasia? | ||
| No | e) Do you support eliminating religious exemptions for vaccinations? | ||
| Yes | f) Do you support requiring businesses to provide paid medical leave during public health crises, such as COVID-19? | ||
| I believe that Healthcare should be a right- not a privilege. I also believe that we have a lot of work to do before America actually prioritizes the health of its citizens- despite the many benefits- economic and otherwise- in doing so. In the meantime we must work to successfully implement Medicaid Expansion in Missouri while also improving the quality and efficiency of our State Medicaid system. We also need to address critical issues such as opioid addiction, prescription drug costs, access to care in rural communities, care for the elderly and disabled, etc. | |||
| Yes | a) Do you support the inclusion of sexual orientation in Missouri's anti-discrimination laws? | ||
| Yes | b) Do you support the inclusion of gender identity in Missouri's anti-discrimination laws? | ||
| Yes | c) Do you support greater efforts by Missouri state government in closing the pay gap between men and women? | ||
| I support passing MONA- the Missouri non-Discrimination Act and ratifying the Equal Rights Amendment. We must oppose discriminatory legislation and policies that harm Missouri residents be they LGBTQ, female, elderly, disabled, from a minority ethnicity or faith, etc. and always advocate for equality, equity and Justice for all. We also need to address current policies such as those that have been altered in order to diminish protections for victims of workplace discrimination. | |||
| My mission is to make Missouri a place that we can be proud to call home. I would like to see my community and House District become more prosperous, just, and peaceful while also working to address our State's shortcomings and maintain and build on our strengths. I believe that a rising tide raises all boats so I believe that it's critical to rebuild and revitalize our urban and rural communities while working to maintain and build on our prosperous middle class communities so that we might ALL live better, more successful and more fulfilling lives. | |||
| My top Legislative priority currently is to recover and rebuild from the economic downturn caused by the effects of the coronavirus pandemic. I believe that in order to get on the path to recovery we must first address and mitigate the harm caused by the COVID-19 disease by having a more sound and comprehensive public health strategy as well as by introducing creative strategies in order to allow businesses and schools to more safely and more widely open. Until we are able to bring in more revenue from a recovering economy we will continue to struggle regardless of budget cuts. |
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