John Webster's Issue Positions (Political Courage Test)
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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.
California State Legislative Election 2008 Political Courage Test
The Political Courage Test asks candidates which items they will support if elected. It does not ask them to indicate which items they will oppose. Through extensive research of public polling data, we discovered that voters are more concerned with what candidates would support when elected to office, not what they oppose. If a candidate does not select a response to any part or all of any question, it does not necessarily indicate that the candidate is opposed to that particular item.
Indicate which principles you support (if any) regarding abortion.
| X | a) Abortions should always be illegal. | ||
| b) Abortions should always be legal. | |||
| c) Abortions should be legal only within the first trimester of pregnancy. | |||
| d) Abortions should be legal when the pregnancy resulted from incest or rape. | |||
| X | e) Abortions should be legal when the life of the woman is endangered. | ||
| f) Abortions should be subject to a mandatory waiting period. | |||
| g) Require clinics to give parental notification before performing abortions on minors. | |||
| A woman must always have the right to disconnect her "life support system" from a fetus she considers to be a parasite. What this means is that after the fetus reaches viability or after the point where technology would allow it to be transplanted into another woman's uterus or to artificial life support, she only has the right to have it extracted from her body, not killed outright. Once extracted any Right to Life group willing to put up the money (and develop the technology) should have the opportunity to try and rescue that fetus. | |||
State Budget: Indicate what state funding levels (#1-6) you support for the following general categories. Select one level per category, you can use a number more than once.State Taxes: Indicate what state tax levels (#1-6) you support for the following general categories. Select one level per category, you can use a number more than once.
| Eliminate | a) Education (Higher) | ||
| Greatly Decrease | b) Education (K-12) | ||
| Slightly Increase | c) Emergency preparedness | ||
| Greatly Decrease | d) Environment | ||
| Greatly Decrease | e) Health care | ||
| Maintain Status | f) Law enforcement | ||
| Greatly Decrease | g) Transportation and highway infrastructure | ||
| Eliminate | h) Welfare | ||
| i) Other or expanded categories | |||
| Eliminate | a) Alcohol taxes | ||
| Greatly Decrease | b) Cigarette taxes | ||
| Eliminate | c) Corporate taxes | ||
| Slightly Decrease | d) Gasoline taxes | ||
| Eliminate | e) Income taxes (incomes below $75,000) | ||
| Eliminate | f) Income taxes (incomes above $75,000) | ||
| Greatly Decrease | g) Property taxes | ||
| Eliminate | h) Sales taxes | ||
| Greatly Decrease | i) Vehicle taxes | ||
| No | 1) Should state sales taxes be extended to Internet sales? | ||
| No | 2) Should accounts such as a "rainy day" fund be used to balance the state budget? | ||
| No | 3) Should fee increases be used to balance the state budget? | ||
| Yes | 4) Should California increase the tax exemption on luxury items (yachts, airplanes, and motor-homes) purchased and stored outside of the state from 90 days to 1 year? | ||
| Gasoline taxes should only pay for the building and maintaining of public roads, and not public transportation, and not for the General fund. Property taxes would not be used for schools but only to maintain local roads, street lighting, and local law enforcement. | |||
| Taxes should not be used to give the Government a cut of any and all money available, but instead it should be seen as a way of paying for services provided to the same people that are taxed. As an example cigarette taxes should only be used to pay for medical treatment for those effected by the diseases brought on by cigarette smoking. | |||
Indicate which principles you support (if any) regarding campaign finance and government reform.c) Do you support limiting the following types of contributions to state legislative candidates?
| No | a) Do you support the current limit of terms for California governors? | ||
| No | b) Do you support the current limit of terms for California state senators and assemblymembers? | ||
| No | 1) Individual | ||
| No | 2) PAC | ||
| Yes | 3) Corporate | ||
| No | 4) Political Parties | ||
| Yes | d) Do you support requiring full and timely disclosure of campaign finance information? | ||
| No | e) Do you support imposing spending limits on state-level political campaigns? | ||
| No | f) Should California participate in the federal REAL ID program? | ||
| No | g) Do you support giving the redistricting authority of the state legislature to a California citizen council? | ||
| No | h) Do you support the California state government using eminent domain to seize private property for the purpose of private development? | ||
| Redistricting is not the solution. What we need is that our two legislative houses should be changed so that one (Senate?) is by district, and the other (Assembly?) is by proportional representation. In that 2nd house any group or party would have a vote proportional to their showing in the general election. In a party's primary a slate of representatives would be selected. In the General Election how many of that slate would be determined so as to give the proper representation. So a Party/Group that got 8% of the vote would have 8% of the members of that house. | |||
Indicate which principles you support (if any) regarding crime.
| a) Increase state funds for construction of state prisons and hiring of additional prison staff. | |||
| b) Support the death penalty in California. | |||
| X | c) Support programs to provide prison inmates with vocational and job-related skills and job-placement assistance when released. | ||
| X | d) Implement penalties other than incarceration for certain non-violent offenders. | ||
| X | e) Minors accused of a violent crime should be prosecuted as adults. | ||
| f) Support state and local law enforcement officials enforcing federal immigration laws. | |||
| g) Support hate crime legislation. | |||
| g) Expression of Hate should never be a crime in its self (i.e. free speech), but only augment the punishment when a crime is committed. So writing hateful graffiti on private property attacking its owner should only enhance the fine and punishment for that act of damaging private property. | |||
Indicate which principles you support (if any) regarding education.
| a) Support state funding of universal pre-K programs. | |||
| b) Support federal education standards and testing requirements for K-12 students (No Child Left Behind). | |||
| c) Support state education standards and testing requirements for K-12 students. | |||
| d) Support requiring public schools to administer high school exit exams. | |||
| e) Allow parents to use vouchers to send their children to any public school. | |||
| f) Allow parents to use vouchers to send their children to any private or religious school. | |||
| g) Provide state funding to increase teacher salaries. | |||
| h) Support using a merit pay system for teachers. | |||
| i) Provide state funding for tax incentives and financial aid to help make college more affordable. | |||
| j) Support allowing illegal immigrant high school graduates of California to pay in-state tuition at public universities. | |||
| It is a complete conflict of interest for the Government to run the schools. It has used the Public Schools to sell the idea that ethics and morality is relative and related to the views of the Majority and to obeying the Laws. Real teaching of ethics and morality in school would show everyone that our Government itself is unethical and Evil. All schooling should be paid with tuition (or private donations). Private charities would provide limited safety net funding for the schooling of indigent families. The free market and not Government should determine what is taught in school. | |||
Indicate which principles you support (if any) regarding employment.
| a) Increase funding for state job-training programs that re-train displaced workers and teach skills needed in todays job market. | |||
| X | b) Reduce state government regulations on the private sector. | ||
| c) Provide low interest loans and tax credits for starting, expanding, or relocating businesses. | |||
| d) Provide tax credits for businesses that provide child care for children in low-income working families. | |||
| e) Increase state funds to provide child care for children in low-income working families. | |||
| f) Increase the state minimum wage. | |||
| g) Support laws that prevent employers from dismissing employees at will. | |||
| h) Support financial punishments for those who knowingly employ illegal immigrants. | |||
| X | i) Support increased work requirements for able-bodied welfare recipients. | ||
| j) Increase funding for employment and job training programs for welfare recipients. | |||
| f) "minimum wage" should be eliminated. | |||
Indicate which principles you support (if any) regarding the environment and energy.
| a) Promote increased use of alternative fuel technology. | |||
| b) Support increased production of traditional domestic energy sources (e.g. coal, natural gas, oil, etc). | |||
| c) Support providing financial incentives to farms that produce biofuel crops. | |||
| d) Use state funds to clean up former industrial and commercial sites that are contaminated, unused, or abandoned. | |||
| e) Support funding for improvements to California's power generating and transmission facilities. | |||
| f) Support funding for open space preservation. | |||
| g) Limit carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases linked to global warming. | |||
| h) Enact environmental regulations even if they are stricter than federal law. | |||
| i) Other or expanded principles | |||
Indicate which principles you support (if any) regarding guns.
| No | a) Should background checks be required on gun sales between private citizens at gun shows? | ||
| Yes | b) Should citizens be allowed to carry concealed guns? | ||
| No | c) Should a license be required for gun possession? | ||
| Undecided | d) Do you support current levels of enforcement of existing state restrictions on the purchase and possession of guns? | ||
| No | e) Do you support current state restrictions on the purchase and possession of guns? | ||
| a) a background check should be possible and optional at the seller's discretion. Rules of liability should come into play if the seller should have known that the gun was being purchased for the commission of a crime. | |||
Indicate which principles you support (if any) regarding health.
| a) Ensure that citizens have access to basic health care through managed care, insurance reforms, or state-funded care where necessary. | |||
| X | b) Guaranteed medical care to all citizens is not a responsibility of state government. | ||
| X | c) Limit the amount of damages that can be awarded in medical malpractice lawsuits. | ||
| X | d) Allow patients to sue their HMOs. | ||
| X | e) Require hospitals and labs to release reports on infections that are a risk to public health, while not compromising patient confidentiality. | ||
| X | f) Legalize physician assisted suicide in California. | ||
| X | g) Support allowing doctors to prescribe marijuana to their patients for medicinal purposes. | ||
| c) Establish guidelines for juries setting amount of damages. e) Define "rules of liability" for not reporting infections that place the Public at risk. | |||
['Indicate which principles you support (if any) regarding social issues.', 'Legislative Priorities']
| Yes | a) Should California continue to recognize domestic partnerships between same-sex couples? | ||
| Yes | b) Should same-sex couples be allowed to marry? | ||
| Yes | c) Should California provide state-level spousal rights to same-sex couples? | ||
| No | d) Do you support a moment of silence in public schools? | ||
| Yes | e) Do you support voluntary prayer in public schools? | ||
| Yes | f) Do you support sexual education programs that include information on abstinence, contraceptives, and HIV/STD prevention methods? | ||
| No | g) Do you support abstinence-only sexual education programs? | ||
| No | h) Should the state government consider race and gender in state government contracting and hiring decisions? | ||
| No | i) Do you support affirmative action in public college admissions? | ||
| No | j) Should California continue affirmative action programs? | ||
| No | k) Do you support state funding of stem cell research? | ||
| No | l) Do you support state funding of embryonic stem cell research? | ||
| Yes | m) Do you support allowing pharmacists who conscientiously object to emergency contraception to refuse to dispense it? | ||
| a,b,&c). From the State's perspective it should only be recording the marriage contract much like recording a business partnership. Perhaps an addendum of that contract would be from the couple's church which would or would not allow same-sex couples. k,&l) The free market should be allowed to do this. m) Pharmacies should be allowed to require their employee (the pharmacists) to dispense EC as a condition of employment. | |||
| -- To bring about a change in the legislature so that one house is proportional representation. -- to remove those laws against "victimless" crimes, and to require all laws defining crimes to require their ethical and jurisdictional basis. | |||
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