Richard Sterner's Issue Positions (Political Courage Test)
Key
Official Position: Candidate addressed this issue directly by taking the Political Courage Test.
Inferred Position: Candidate refused to address this issue, but Vote Smart inferred this issue based on the candidate's public record, including statements, voting record, and special interest group endorsements.
Unknown Position: Candidate refused to address this issue, or we could not infer an answer for this candidate despite exhaustive research of their public record.
Additional Information: Click on this icon to reveal more information about this candidate's position, from their answers or Vote Smart's research.
Other or Expanded Principles & Legislative Priorities are entered exactly as candidates submit them. Vote Smart does not edit for misspelled words, punctuation or grammar.
Richard Sterner has provided voters with clear stances on key issues by responding to the 2020 Political Courage Test.
Pennsylvania 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? | ||
| Yes | c) Do you support the prohibition of public funds for organizations that perform abortions? | ||
| I was a high school principal for a long time. I have seen girls attacked by members of their own family and made pregnant. It is heartbreaking. I am not FOR abortion but I am not for teen suicide either. Nor when lives are at risk I don't think I can personally step into that decision making process. Sometimes these difficult and wrenching decisions should be between family, and God, and a minister that understands the situation. | |||
| 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? | ||
| Tax cuts are a favorite topic of politics. Realistically, we are all in this together. Cutting salaries of the people that serve seems an unpatriotic move on the part of patriots. We need to find a more reasonable way to find revenue sources and more careful ways to cut spending. | |||
| 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? | ||
| No | e) Do you support automatic voter registration? | ||
| No | f) Do you support reducing the number of representatives in the Pennsylvania General Assembly? | ||
| No | g) Do you support limiting disaster declarations to 30 days unless approved by the legislature? | ||
| There are years when the legislature can't even approve a budget on time. How could we expect the legislature to always act in a timely way in an emergency? | |||
| No | a) Do you support capital punishment for certain crimes? | ||
| Yes | b) Should an individual under 18 accused of a violent crime be prosecuted as an adult? | ||
| No | 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 Pennsylvania? | ||
| No | e) Do you support mandatory minimum sentences for non-violent drug offenders? | ||
| Yes | f) Do you support the legalization of recreational marijuana? | ||
| No | g) Do you support requiring state and local law enforcement agencies to publicly disclose use-of-force data reports? | ||
| Mandatory minimums for non-violent drug offenses don't work and they simply over fill our prisons at a tremendous cost to our tax payers. | |||
| 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? | ||
| No | e) Do you support an increase of the minimum wage of Pennsylvania? | ||
| No | 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? | ||
| Things like increasing the minimum wage and requiring paid family leave are unfounded mandates that come from the government. And we wonder way our taxes go up??? | |||
| No | a) Do you support adopting federal education standards in Pennsylvania? | ||
| No | b) Do you support state funding for charter schools? | ||
| Yes | c) Do you support increasing teacher salaries AND/OR benefits in Pennsylvania? | ||
| Yes | d) Should immigrants unlawfully present in the United States who graduate from Pennsylvania high schools be eligible for in-state tuition at public universities? | ||
| Pennsylvania should strive for the best public schools in the nation. Education is the magic bullet that can fix so many things in our country. It is time we recognize that!!! | |||
| 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? | ||
| Yes | d) Do you support the taxation of natural gas drilling? | ||
| Alternative green energy resources are our future. We need to beginning training workers in that direction. | |||
| 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? | ||
| No | c) Should teachers be allowed to bring guns into the classroom after passing gun safety training? | ||
| Yes | d) Should a license be required for gun ownership? | ||
| No | e) Do you support mandatory minimum sentences on gun-related crimes? | ||
| I was a high school principal. I was privy to too many frightening gun stories not to worry about this. | |||
| Yes | a) Should the state government increase funding for treatment facilities to combat opioid abuse? | ||
| Yes | b) Do you support Medicaid expansion through Pennsylvania's health care programs? | ||
| Yes | 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? | ||
| No | f) Do you support requiring businesses to provide paid medical leave during public health crises, such as COVID-19? | ||
| Requiring businesses to pay for leave during a health crises would be a disaster out to small businesses throughout the state. On the other hand if the federal government steps up with a "stimulus package", the benefits of that package should be required as presented. | |||
| Yes | a) Do you support the inclusion of sexual orientation in Pennsylvania's anti-discrimination laws? | ||
| Yes | b) Do you support the inclusion of gender identity in Pennsylvania's anti-discrimination laws? | ||
| Yes | c) Do you support greater efforts by Pennsylvania state government in closing the pay gap between men and women? | ||
| d) Other or expanded principles: | |||
| Public Education is a key area of focus in my campaign. We need to reexamine how PA's funding formula for public education. Fair and equitable funding isn't enough. Our schools should be one of the best things about our state. | |||
| I would like to change the way we evaluate schools. We should be looking at the final product and not just a few select pieces of how students do on a test that doesn't count for them. K-12 schools were built to prepare students to be college and/or career ready. So why don't we create an evaluative system that actually exams that criteria? The state spends 10s of millions currently on standardized tests ..... the funding for a new system and possibly a less expensive system is already in place! |
Vote Smart does not permit the use of its name or programs in any campaign activity, including advertising, debates, and speeches.