Erik Raudsep's Issue Positions (Political Courage Test)
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Erik Raudsep has provided voters with clear stances on key issues by responding to the 2018 Political Courage Test.
North Carolina State Legislative Election 2018 Political Courage Test
| Pro-choice | a) Do you generally support pro-choice or pro-life legislation? | ||
| Yes | b) Should abortion be legal when the pregnancy resulted from incest or rape? | ||
| No | c) Do you support the prohibition of public funds for organizations that perform abortions? | ||
| we must do everything to fight abortions going underground. We must understand making abortion inaccessible will only create unsafe conditions for women. | |||
1) Budget Stabilization:Indicate which proposals you support (if any) for balancing North Carolina's budget.
| No | a) Reducing state employee salaries AND/OR pensions? | ||
| No | b) Instituting mandatory furloughs AND/OR layoffs for state employees? | ||
| No | c) Reducing benefits for Medicaid recipients? | ||
| No | d) An income tax increase on any tax bracket? | ||
| e) Other or expanded principles: | |||
| Yes | a) Do you support any limits 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? | ||
| e) Other or expanded principles: | |||
| No | a) Do you support capital punishment for certain crimes? | ||
| Yes | b) Do you support the legalization of marijuana for recreational purposes? | ||
| No | c) Should a minor accused of a violent crime be prosecuted as an adult? | ||
| No | d) Do you support the enforcement of federal immigration laws by state and local police? | ||
| e) Other or expanded principles: | |||
| No | a) Do you support state government spending as a means of promoting economic growth? | ||
| Yes | b) Do you support lowering state taxes as a means of promoting economic growth? | ||
| Yes | c) Do you support reducing state government regulations on the private sector? | ||
| No | d) Do you support expanding access to unemployment benefits? | ||
| No | e) Do you support requiring welfare applicants to pass a drug test in order to receive benefits? | ||
| Yes | f) Do you support an increase of the minimum wage of North Carolina? | ||
| Raising the minimum wage is a stop gap measure until we can create a system between workers and business to determine their own minimum wages as has been successful thought Europe. At which point we can do away with a state mandated minimum wage. | |||
| No | a) Do you support adopting federal education standards in North Carolina? | ||
| Yes | b) Do you support state funding for charter schools? | ||
| Yes | c) Should immigrants unlawfully present in the United States who graduate from North Carolina high schools be eligible for in-state tuition at public universities? | ||
| Yes | d) Do you support increasing funding for the state education budget? | ||
| No | e) Do you support North Carolina's "Innovative School District" program? | ||
| The innovative school district program relies on strict testing and extraneous values. This takes away from the teachers ability to teach and develop their children. Also when a school falls into the bottom 20% this creates a slippery slop encouraging further devolution. We must empower our teachers and ensure they have the proper tools to create success not waste money on testing. Our children are unique and can't be fit into brackets or meaningless statistics which make our politicians feel better. | |||
| No | a) Do you support state funding for the development of renewable energy (e.g. solar, wind, thermal)? | ||
| No | b) Do you support state government regulations of greenhouse gas emissions? | ||
| No | c) Do you support increasing state funding for clean drinking water initiatives? | ||
| Regulation has proven time and time again to favor the corporations in the last 20 years. We must return to simple law to enforce our environmental issues and not regulate our way into a circumvented problem. We must trust our judges and out legal system as a whole and abandon the "special panels" who end up being corporate stooges. | |||
| No | a) Do you generally support gun-control legislation? | ||
| Yes | b) Should background checks be required on gun sales between private citizens at gun shows? | ||
| No | c) Should teachers be allowed to bring guns into the classroom? | ||
| No | d) Should a license be required for gun ownership? | ||
| Guns are a tool, we must teach gun safety to our children and there by respect for the tool. Our fear of guns in our society as a taboo brings us to the disastrous point that we are at today. A correlation point is that shop classes have been eliminated in large part in our schools and more power tool accidents are in our emergency rooms every year because of it. It is the same with our firearms. | |||
| Yes | a) Should the state government increase funding for treatment facilities to combat opioid abuse? | ||
| No | b) Do you support Medicaid expansion through North Carolina'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? | ||
| We keep talking about Medicaid and health insurance as the solution to the health crisis in North Carolina. This is akin to talking about the cough with an individual with Tuberculosis. The health insurance problem in NC is a symptom of a greater problem a failing health system that is corrupt. We must go to the source and solve the problem there and not look to fix the symptoms. We must eliminate the certificate of need we must empower our nurse practitioners and expand the power of our medical licences. | |||
| Yes | a) Do you support the inclusion of sexual orientation in North Carolina's anti-discrimination laws? | ||
| Yes | b) Do you support the inclusion of gender identity in North Carolina's anti-discrimination laws? | ||
| Yes | c) Do you support greater efforts by North Carolina state government in closing the pay gap between men and women? | ||
| Yes | d) Do you support the removal of Confederate monuments from public spaces? | ||
| The removal of Confederate Monuments is not a yes or no question. They need to be relocated to appropriate spaces. We must change the narrative of their meaning from one of hate to a one of warning a stoic reminder, of what we were, and if we are not careful what we can become again. | |||
| My top three priorities when elected is going to be Fair Government (Ending Gerrymandering, Ensuring our Judges are elected, Stop voter ID, Impose term limits) Equality (For the LGBTQ community, Our Immigrants, People of Color, Economically Disadvantaged) Small Business Development (Eliminating certain business licences to encourage sector growth, Creating a micro loan program with the Rainy Day Fund, Stopping all corporate tax breaks as incentives) |
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