Randall Bridges' Issue Positions (Political Courage Test)
Office:
- State House (KY) - District 3, Republican
On The Ballot: Running, Republican for State House (KY) - District 3
Key
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Other or Expanded Principles & Legislative Priorities are entered exactly as candidates submit them. Vote Smart does not edit for misspelled words, punctuation or grammar.
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.
Kentucky State Legislative Election 2014 Political Courage Test
| Pro-life | a) Do you generally support pro-choice or pro-life legislation? | ||
| Yes | b) Should abortions be illegal after the first trimester of pregnancy? | ||
| No | c) Should abortion be legal when the pregnancy resulted from incest or rape? | ||
| Yes | d) Should abortion be legal when the life of the woman is endangered? | ||
| Yes | e) Do you support requiring parental notification before an abortion is performed on a minor? | ||
| Yes | f) Do you support requiring parental consent before an abortion is performed on a minor? | ||
| Yes | g) Do you support the prohibition of public funds for abortion procedures? | ||
| Yes | h) Do you support the prohibition of public funds for organizations that perform abortions? | ||
| i) Other or expanded principles: | |||
1) State Spending:Using the key, indicate what state funding levels (#1-6) you support for the following general categories. Select one level per category; you may use a number more than once.2) State Taxes:Using the key, indicate what state tax levels (#1-6) you support for the following general categories. Select one level per category; you may use a number more than once.3) Budget Stabilization:Indicate which proposals you support (if any) for balancing Kentucky's budget.
| Maintain Status | a) Education (higher) | ||
| Maintain Status | b) Education (K-12) | ||
| Maintain Status | c) Environment | ||
| Greatly Decrease | d) Health care | ||
| Maintain Status | e) Law enforcement/corrections | ||
| Maintain Status | f) Transportation/infrastructure | ||
| Slightly Decrease | g) Welfare | ||
| Maintain Status | a) Alcohol taxes | ||
| Maintain Status | b) Cigarette taxes | ||
| Slightly Decrease | c) Corporate taxes | ||
| Maintain Status | d) Gas/Oil taxes | ||
| Maintain Status | e) Property taxes | ||
| Maintain Status | f) Sales taxes | ||
| Slightly Decrease | g) Income taxes (low-income families) | ||
| Slightly Decrease | h) Income taxes (mid-income families) | ||
| Slightly Decrease | i) Income taxes (high-income families) | ||
| Yes | a) Tapping into Kentucky's "rainy day" fund | ||
| b) Increasing tuition rates at public universities | |||
| Yes | c) Reducing or eliminating public worker collective bargaining | ||
| d) Reducing state employee salaries AND/OR pensions | |||
| e) Instituting mandatory furloughs AND/OR layoffs for state employees | |||
| Yes | f) Reducing benefits for Medicaid recipients | ||
| State spending must be curtailed in all areas. Even maintaining the current levels is a slight decrease when inflation is calculated in. | |||
| In the area of taxes I believe over all we are going to have to be competitive with surrounding states. I believe we should look for ways to cut spending in the effort to eventually reduce taxes. Raising any taxes should only come as a last resort and only in emergency circumstances. | |||
| It's estimated that when the federal funding of Medicaid starts its reduction our state will be left with 3/4 of a billion in additional debt and grow there after. We must start looking at ways to reduce spending. I would start by looking at government agencies where there are duplications and start combining these areas and reduce state workforce through attrition. This could prevent mandatory furloughs and/or reduction in state employees salaries/pensions. I don't believe that collective bargaining should be eliminated but I do feel measures should be put in place to make sure the results are financially viable. | |||
a) Do you support limits on the following types of contributions for state candidates?
| Yes | 1) Individual | ||
| Yes | 2) Political Action Committee | ||
| Yes | 3) Corporate | ||
| Yes | 4) Political Party | ||
| Yes | b) Should candidates for state office be encouraged to meet voluntary spending limits? | ||
| Yes | c) Do you support requiring full and timely disclosure of campaign finance information? | ||
| Yes | d) Do you support the use of an independent AND/OR bipartisan commission for redistricting? | ||
| Yes | e) Do you support requiring a government-issued photo identification in order to vote at the polls? | ||
| I would support any limits on elections as long as they are enforced equally. The amount of money spent on campaigns is a tragedy. Until limits are set all parties will continue to raise and spend as much/more than the opponent. | |||
| Yes | a) Do you support capital punishment for certain crimes? | ||
| Yes | b) Do you support alternatives to incarceration for certain non-violent offenders, such as mandatory counseling or substance abuse treatment? | ||
| No | c) Do you support legalizing the possession of small amounts of marijuana? | ||
| Yes | d) Should a minor accused of a violent crime be prosecuted as an adult? | ||
| Yes | e) Should a minor who sends sexually-explicit or nude photos by cell phone face criminal charges? | ||
| Yes | f) Do you support the enforcement of federal immigration laws by state and local police? | ||
| d)age limits should be placed on minors according to the extent of the crime. e) not incarceration but counseling and community service | |||
| Yes | a) Do you support reducing government regulations on the private sector? | ||
| Yes | b) Do you support increased state funding for job-training programs that re-train displaced workers? | ||
| No | c) Do you support expanding access to unemployment benefits? | ||
| Yes | d) Do you support providing financial incentives to the private sector for the purpose of job creation? | ||
| No | e) Do you support government spending as a means of promoting economic growth? | ||
| No | f) Do you support providing direct financial assistance to homeowners facing foreclosure? | ||
| No | g) Do you support an increase of the minimum wage? | ||
| g) I feel the minimum wage is for entry level positions and part time employment. By increasing minimum wage you only inflate the economy as a whole. It's basic economics. An increase in minimum wage would only add to the loss of jobs and inflated prices. | |||
| No | a) Do you support the national Common Core State Standards initiative? | ||
| No | b) Do you support a merit pay system for teachers? | ||
| Yes | c) Is the tenure process for public school teachers producing effective teachers? | ||
| d) Should parents be allowed to use vouchers to send their children to any school? | |||
| Yes | e) Do you support state funding for charter schools? | ||
| Yes | f) Do you support the state government providing college students with financial aid? | ||
| No | g) Should illegal immigrants who graduate from Kentucky high schools be eligible for in-state tuition at public universities? | ||
| a&b)while the objective of common core and merit pay systems are honorable they is not effective. Students are not the same and don't learn the same. Low income households cannot and do not have the ability to provide the students with some of the basic needs as the middle and upper income households. As the husband and father of teachers I feel the teachers should be allowed the freedom to use their professional training to teach students according to their learning ability and environment. g)anyone or anything that is illegal is illegal and should be given encouragement or incentives. | |||
| No | a) Do you support state funding for the development of alternative energy? | ||
| Yes | b) Do you support state funding for the development of traditional domestic energy sources (e.g. coal, natural gas, oil)? | ||
| Yes | c) Do you support state funding for improvements to Kentucky's energy infrastructure? | ||
| No | d) Do you support state funding for open space preservation? | ||
| No | e) Do you support government regulations of greenhouse gas emissions? | ||
| e)With any existing regulations there should also be funding available to revive and improve current traditional energy sources such as coal, natural gas, and oil. | |||
| No | a) Do you support restrictions on the purchase and possession of guns? | ||
| No | b) Should background checks be required on gun sales between private citizens at gun shows? | ||
| Yes | c) Should citizens be allowed to carry concealed guns? | ||
| No | d) Should a license be required for gun possession? | ||
| Our current federal leadership has declared was on our second amendment rights and this needs to be changed. | |||
| No | a) Do you support a universally-accessible, publicly-administered health insurance option? | ||
| No | b) Do you support expanding access to health care through commercial health insurance reform? | ||
| Yes | c) Do you support interstate health insurance compacts? | ||
| No | d) Do you support Medicaid expansion under the Affordable Care Act? | ||
| No | e) Do you support requiring individuals to purchase health care insurance? | ||
| No | f) Do you support monetary limits on damages that can be collected in malpractice lawsuits? | ||
| Yes | g) Do you support allowing doctors to prescribe marijuana to their patients for medicinal purposes? | ||
| f)punitive damages are for punitive purposes. If limits on damages were placed then large entities would only look at the odds of a limited/calculated loss and the safety of the public could be put at risk. The risk of punitive damages are the core of keeping large entities in line. However, there should be stiff penalties placed on those who bring participate in frivolous lawsuit. | |||
| No | a) Do you support same-sex marriage? | ||
| No | b) Should same-sex couples be allowed to form civil unions? | ||
| No | c) Do you support the inclusion of sexual orientation in Kentucky's anti-discrimination laws? | ||
| No | d) Do you support the inclusion of gender identity in Kentucky's anti-discrimination laws? | ||
| e) Other or expanded principles: | |||
| The top three items needed to be address are as follows: 1)Economic Development through aggressive tax reform, reduction in over burdening regulations on small businesses, and right to work laws. 2)Balancing the budget through reduction in wasteful government spending, combining duplicated government services, reducing government work force through attrition, and major health care reform. 3)Education reform through reforming common core standards, placing more teachers in the classroom by reducing the workforce in the education department in Frankfort. By reducing burdening regulations on the education system payroll can be moved from the office and clerical department to the classroom. |
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