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Denise Tepler's Issue Positions (Political Courage Test)

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On The Ballot: Running, Democratic for State Senate (ME) - District 24

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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.
What is the Political Courage Test?
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.

Maine 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.

a) Abortions should always be illegal.
X b) Abortions should always be legal.
c) Abortions should be legal only within the first trimester of pregnancy.
X 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.
This is a private matter between a woman and her doctor, a licensed medical professional.

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.

Slightly Increase a) Education (Higher)
Slightly Increase b) Education (K-12)
Maintain Status c) Emergency preparedness
Maintain Status d) Environment
Maintain Status e) Health care
Maintain Status f) Law enforcement
Slightly Increase g) Transportation and highway infrastructure
Maintain Status h) Welfare
i) Other or expanded categories
Maintain Status a) Alcohol taxes
Maintain Status b) Cigarette taxes
Slightly Increase c) Corporate taxes
Maintain Status d) Gasoline taxes
Slightly Decrease e) Income taxes (incomes below $75,000)
Slightly Decrease f) Income taxes (incomes above $75,000)
Maintain Status g) Property taxes
Slightly Increase h) Sales taxes
Maintain Status i) Vehicle taxes
Yes 1) Should state sales taxes be extended to Internet sales?
2) Should accounts such as a "rainy day" fund be used to balance the state budget?
Undecided 3) Should fee increases be used to balance the state budget?
No 4) Should state funding to local school districts be reduced to help balance the state budget?
I am concerned about the relative impacts of business taxes on different types of businesses. Locally owned and operated businesses, where ownership and therefore profits remain in state, should receive more tax breaks than larger multi-national corporate businesses where profits flow to out of state stake holders. We need to support small Maine entrepreneurship and encourage small businesses and manufacterers and protect them from unfair competition. They are the backbone of a sustainable economy.
Reducing state provision of school funding (general purpose aid) simply shifts costs to local taxpayers and increases the property tax burdens at the local level. I am not in favor of increasing all fees, however, sometimes "pay to play", enables people to better choose how they will spend (or not) while maintaining state provided services. Carefully chosen use of the rainy day fund may get the state through temporarily rough economic periods. I believe the base of the sales tax must be broadened.

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?

Yes a) Do you support the current limit of terms for Maine governors?
No b) Do you support the current limit of terms for Maine state senators and representatives?
Yes 1) Individual
Yes 2) PAC
Yes 3) Corporate
Yes 4) Political Parties
Yes d) Do you support requiring full and timely disclosure of campaign finance information?
Yes e) Do you support imposing spending limits on state-level political campaigns?
Undecided f) Should Maine participate in the federal REAL ID program?
I am very wary of tradeoffs between security and personal freedom. I feel that the relative security value of the REAL ID program as opposed to the loss of personal freedom and privacy that it represents needs further study.

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) Establish the death penalty in Maine.
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.
e) Minors accused of a violent crime should be prosecuted as adults.
f) Support state and local law enforcement officials enforcing federal immigration laws.
X g) Support hate crime legislation.
Keeping people out of jail -- whether through early childhood intervention programs or programs that prevent criminal recidivism -- is more cost effective than keeping them in.

Indicate which principles you support (if any) regarding education.

X 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).
X 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.
X 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 Maine to pay in-state tuition at public universities.
Right now the state cannot easily afford to provide expanded educational opportunity, but I believe if we can find a way to provide universal pre-K and more opportunites to make college affordable for students and their families we will be growing our economy in the long run. I believe we can provide performance incentives for teachers in addition to, rather than in lieu of, the current seniority based pay system. Teachers have a right to their negotiated salary steps and school districts may provide additional financial incentives for teachers who go above and beyond in the performance of their duty.

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 today’s job market.
b) Reduce state government regulations on the private sector.
X c) Provide low interest loans and tax credits for starting, expanding, or relocating businesses.
X d) Provide tax credits for businesses that provide child care for children in low-income working families.
X e) Increase state funds to provide child care for children in low-income working families.
X f) Increase the state minimum wage.
X g) Support laws that prevent employers from dismissing employees at will.
h) Support financial punishments for those who knowingly employ illegal immigrants.
i) Support increased work requirements for able-bodied welfare recipients.
j) Increase funding for employment and job training programs for welfare recipients.
I believe that we, as a state, have done fairly well with offering job re-training for those who have lost positions in manufacturing. But...more jobs are needed. We need to create more jobs, good jobs, by attracting high tech businesses and clean, green small high-end manufacturers to our lovely state. We need to support entrepreneurship. And, for workers, we need to bring up wages to a living level.

Indicate which principles you support (if any) regarding the environment and energy.

X 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.
X e) Support funding for improvements to Maine's power generating and transmission facilities.
X f) Support funding for open space preservation.
X g) Limit carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases linked to global warming.
X h) Enact environmental regulations even if they are stricter than federal law.
Federal law under the Bush administration has not provided a particularly stringent standard for environmental protection.

Indicate which principles you support (if any) regarding guns.

Yes 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?
Yes 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?
Undecided e) Do you support current state restrictions on the purchase and possession of guns?
I think that citizens have a right to possess and bear arms, however, the state has a compelling interest in making sure that they do so in a non-criminal fashion that protects the safety of other citizens. I do not yet know enough about Maine firearms sales restrictions and levels of enforcement to make a judgement about my support for them.

Indicate which principles you support (if any) regarding health.

X a) Ensure that citizens have access to basic health care through managed care, insurance reforms, or state-funded care where necessary.
b) Guaranteed medical care to all citizens is not a responsibility of state government.
X c) Support Dirigo Health in Maine.
d) Limit the amount of damages that can be awarded in medical malpractice lawsuits.
e) Allow patients to sue their HMOs.
X f) Require hospitals and labs to release reports on infections that are a risk to public health, while not compromising patient confidentiality.
g) Legalize physician assisted suicide in Maine.
X h) Support allowing doctors to prescribe marijuana to their patients for medicinal purposes.
We must work to provide all citizens, especially our children, with basic health care that includes provisions for well care -- keeping more people healthy and productive and reducing the rise in health care costs.

['Indicate which principles you support (if any) regarding social issues.', 'Legislative Priorities']

Yes a) Should Maine recognize civil unions between same-sex couples?
Yes b) Should same-sex couples be allowed to marry?
Yes c) Should Maine provide state-level spousal rights to same-sex couples?
d) Do you support a moment of silence in public schools?
No 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?
Yes h) Should the state government consider race and gender in state government contracting and hiring decisions?
Yes i) Do you support affirmative action in public college admissions?
Yes j) Should Maine continue affirmative action programs?
Yes k) Do you support state funding of stem cell research?
Yes l) Do you support state funding of embryonic stem cell research?
No m) Do you support allowing pharmacists who conscientiously object to emergency contraception to refuse to dispense it?
I am married for 27 years and have 3 children -- and I support expanded civil rights for all and reproductive freedom.
My top priority is to push for another attempt at revising the state's tax code. I also would like to see the state work to develop an overall plan (legislative blue ribbon commission, perhaps?) for economic development, including a look at ways to support small business development and encouraging the use of green technologies and alternative energy sources. The suggestions outlined in the Brookings report provide a starting place. I also feel the state needs to look at credit and lending practices to protect consumers and our economy from future fallout. We must continue to fight for healthcare for all.

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