George Pataki'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.
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George Pataki 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.
Issue Positions
For Presidential and Congressional candidates who refuse to provide voters with their positions, Vote Smart has researched their public records to determine their likely responses. These issue positions are from 2016.
- PBS "Defining himself as "pro-choice", the New York Republican has spoken out against late term abortions and voted against government-funded abortions as a state legislator, but he otherwise opposes restrictions on abortion access for women." (www.pbs.org)
- "An ardent advocate of smaller-smarter government he dramatically reduced the size of the state force, achieving a 15% reduction; [?] From the personal income tax, to the estate tax, to a tax on beer - under Pataki's leadership 19 different taxes were cut 90 times saving New Yorkers over $140 billion dollars" (www.wethepeoplenotwashington.com)
- "But with respect to drug crimes, we did reduce mandatory sentences. And we did create 'shock incarceration' camps, where the idea being that someone who had committed a drug crime and deserved, appropriately, to be separated from society at large - but we didn't want to turn them into a hardened criminal - so we put them into drug boot camps, six to eight months, where they had intensive physical and mental counseling and conditioning, after which they would be given the opportunity to avoid being incarcerated in the broader criminal justice penal system." (nhjournal.com)
- National Center for Policy Analysis "Gov. George Pataki (R-N.Y.) recently proposed rolling back his state's stiff sentences." (www.ncpa.org)
- TIME "In 2004, prompted by increasing pressure from activists and legislators, then-Gov. George Pataki signed the Drug Law Reform Act, a move that significantly changed the Rockefeller laws' sentencing guidelines. The harshest mandatory minimum was relaxed to 8 to 20 years and those convicted of serious offenses were allowed to apply for lighter sentences." (content.time.com)
- "By standing up to a big spending legislature, shrinking government, vetoing thousands of spending items, excising thousands of government regulations, and implementing one of the largest tax cut programs in American history, Governor Pataki put the Empire State back on track." (www.wethepeoplenotwashington.com)
- "By standing up to a big spending legislature, shrinking government, vetoing thousands of spending items, excising thousands of government regulations, and implementing one of the largest tax cut programs in American history, Governor Pataki put the Empire State back on track." (www.wethepeoplenotwashington.com)
- "An ardent advocate of smaller-smarter government he dramatically reduced the size of the state force, achieving a 15% reduction; [?] From the personal income tax, to the estate tax, to a tax on beer - under Pataki's leadership 19 different taxes were cut 90 times saving New Yorkers over $140 billion dollars" (www.wethepeoplenotwashington.com)
- "I'm against it. I'm for high standards but I don't we should have Washington or some global community dictating to every state and every school how they're going to educate our children. I've said I believe in high standards but one of my aides brought her kindergartener's math course, math homework, to me. And I did very well in math in school. It was incomprehensible. I don't understand what they're trying to accomplish. The bottom line is we don't need a national group telling states how to educate our children. Education has always been the prerogative of the states and should continue to be that." (www.nh1.com)
- Despite exhaustive research, Vote Smart was unable to find information about this candidate's position.
- Alliance to Save Energy "In addition, Governor Pataki worked to create public private partnerships for clean energy generation in New York State resulting in one of the largest industrial solar power arrays in the U.S. and one of the largest wind-power arrays in the Eastern United States. He introduced net metering to encourage alternative energy production in homes and established the nation's first business park devoted to the development of clean energy technologies." (www.ase.org)
- CBS New York "Pataki said Monday he believes climate change is best tackled through private and market-based initiatives and he does not support new federal regulations aimed at reducing carbon emissions. "I think it's wrong to ignore environmental and conservation issues, I think it's an important part of the federal government's role," Pataki said. "But I think it's even worse if the federal government uses that as an excuse to raise revenue, shut down businesses, cut off innovation and pick winners and losers.'" (newyork.cbslocal.com)
- PBS "As New York governor, Pataki signed a gun law which banned some assault weapons, required a record of each gun's ballistics, required trigger locks on new guns and raised the legal age of gun purchase from 18 to 21." (www.pbs.org)
- "While he would later emerge as a leading opponent of Obamacare, as Governor, Pataki dramatically expanded access to health care for the uninsured, especially children, by creating market based solutions such as Child Health Plus, Family Health Plus and Healthy New York" (www.wethepeoplenotwashington.com)
- "I believe it's totally unrealistic if we think we're going to take 11 million people and send them back where they came from. We do have to find a way for the vast majority of them to legalize their status here." (abcnews.go.com)
- New York Times "He has supported giving immigrants who are in the country illegally a pathway to legal status, telling MSNBC that the United States cannot "send 11 million people back in railroad cars and buses and trains."" (www.nytimes.com)
- PBS "On same-sex marriage, Pataki believes the issue should be left up to the states. Pataki's personal position on gay marriage currently is unclear. As governor, he did not support gay marriage and has never publically changed his stance." (www.pbs.org)
- "Having experienced the devastation of terrorism up close on 9/11, Governor Pataki knows America must take a hardline against Islamic extremism. Governor Pataki is a vocal advocate of proactively pursuing terrorists before they attack our homeland again. Our next President can't begin with a worldwide apology tour; we need to take the fight to the terrorists directly." (www.wethepeoplenotwashington.com)
- USA Today "Pataki also said Congress needs to renew the Patriot Act "in light of the growing danger we face'' from the jihadist Islamic State's radicalization of Americans." (www.usatoday.com)
- "We should send in forces to destroy training centers and camps, kill as many as possible and leave" (www.unionleader.com)
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