Candidate Questionnaire - US Senate -Barbara Radnofsky
Candidate Questionnaire - US Senate -Barbara Radnofsky
1. Would you support requiring all electronic voting machines to print on paper for each voter a summary of their voting choices, which will become, after their inspection, the authoritative record of their vote?
Response: Yes.
2. Would you support a repeal of the PATRIOT ACT?
Response: The Patriot Act should be reviewed and amended.
3. Would you support cutting off all funding for all military operations and the American military occupation of Iraq other than what is necessary to implement withdrawal as soon as possible?
Response: The U.S.should withdraw from Iraq as soon as safely practicable. See issues chart on web site.
4. Would you support the impeachment of President Bush and Vice President Cheney?
Response: The president and vice-president's actions in wiretapping American citizens should be reviewed by an independent investigation. I support the censure proposal by Sen. Feingold.
5. Would you support reversing the tax cuts for the wealthy and apply the money toward social programs and the deficit?
Response: Rolling back President Bush's tax cuts for the richest one percent will save the government $327 billion. I support this rollback. See issues chart on web site.
6. Would you support single payer universal health care?
Response: I support and have advocated single risk pool since the beginning of my campaign. See issues chart on web site.
7. Would you support enactment of legislation providing for public financing of general election campaigns for elective office at the local, state and federal levels?
Response: Yes.
8. Would you be in favor of reinstating the Fairness Doctrine in broadcasting?
Response: First Amendment rights should be curtailed only after careful analysis. Broadcasters claim responsibility in presenting differing views on a range of important and controversial issues. I'd like to learn more and see studies--which I've not as yet found--on state of access and programming. The analysis may be out there, but I've not seen it.
9. Would you support the repeal of No Child Left Behind and the banning of military recruiters on school campuses?
Response: Those portions of NCLB which cause schools to turn their backs on at-risk students should be eliminated. Those unfunded portions with merit (teacher scholarships, for example) should be funded. See issues chart for education proposals and positions. I oppose military recruiters on school campuses.
10. Would you support a windfall profit tax on oil and gas companies and the use of those funds for the development of sustainable, renewable sources of energy?
Response: Congress should repeal the $8.5 billion in subsidies over 5 years that energy companies admit they do not need. See issues chart for stance on renewables.
11. Would you support a constitutional amendment to abolish the Electoral College? Yes.
12. To make our country safer, would you support the establishment of a Cabinet level Department of Peace to coordinate and promote non-violent conflict resolution in order to reduce violence both inside the U.S. and with other countries?
Response: I disagree that such a measure would make our country safer.
13. Would you support a resolution repudiating the policy of preemptive war?
Response: The distinction between preventive and pre-emptive has been blurred and confused in current U.S. foreign policy. Pre-emptive strikes must remain in our arsenal.
14. Would you support a ban on the death penalty?
Response: No, not a complete ban.
15. Do you support a woman's right to choose including restoring federal funding for all family planning including abortions?
Response: As a pro-choice woman I have consistently said for more than two years that we should target zero abortion by preserving Roe v. Wade and by improving the economic and social conditions of women (health care, prenatal care, pay parity, child care, for example) such that no women is economically coerced to abort.
16. Because U.S. corporations have the rights, but not the responsibilities of persons, would you support legislation that would deny corporations the rights of personhood?
Response: The premise of this question is incorrect.
17. Do you believe affirmative action should be preserved and continued?
Response: Quotas have been abused at times in a discriminatory manner, and each use must be evaluated on its own merits.
18. What legislation would you propose that safeguards clean air and clean water, regulations designed to reduce the threat of oil spills in our waterways and harmful pollution in our ozone layer?
Response: We must enforce existing clean air and water legislation and insist that executive agencies do their job.
19. What would you do to change the current predatory practices of banks and credit card companies?
Response: The consumer bankruptcy act protects no consumers. The provisions giving preference to credit card companies and car dealers (for example using the full value of a used car in determining loan exceeding the blue book value) should be repealed. The causes of bankruptcy (e.g. catastrophic health care costs) should have been taken into account. The massive burdens on our courts and the inability of persons in good faith seeking the protection of the bankruptcy laws should not have been thwarted by this mis-named legislation. And, for our veterans, we must adopt the Durbin amendment to prevent unscrupulous pay day lending practices and to allow national homestead exemption for military personnel, who cannot control where they live. See issues chart.
submitted by Seth Davidson, Communications Director, Barbara Ann Radnofsky US Senate 2006
http://www.radnofsky.com
Radnofsky's issues chart: http://www.radnofsky.com/press/issues/issue_chart.pdf