Maximilian Martin's Issue Positions (Political Courage Test)
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Maximilian Martin 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.
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.
Texas State Legislative Election 2014 Political Courage Test
| Pro-choice | a) Do you generally support pro-choice or pro-life legislation? | ||
| No | b) Should abortions be illegal after the first trimester of pregnancy? | ||
| Yes | 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? | ||
| No | g) Do you support the prohibition of public funds for abortion procedures? | ||
| No | h) Do you support the prohibition of public funds for organizations that perform abortions? | ||
| In general, I oppose any law or funding of programs that impedes the private decision of an individual. As long as existing public funds are available for healthcare, I support the individual's choice as to how such funding is used. A dependent should defer medical decisions to his/her guardian. The state SHOULD NOT impose its morality upon a citizen, and therefore it should not propose any law that minimizes a citizen's right to choose personal medical procedures. | |||
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 Texas's budget.
| Greatly Decrease | a) Education (higher) | ||
| Greatly Decrease | b) Education (K-12) | ||
| Maintain Status | c) Environment | ||
| Greatly Decrease | d) Health care | ||
| Maintain Status | e) Law enforcement/corrections | ||
| Maintain Status | f) Transportation/infrastructure | ||
| Eliminate | g) Welfare | ||
| Greatly Decrease | a) Alcohol taxes | ||
| Greatly Decrease | b) Cigarette taxes | ||
| Greatly Decrease | c) Gas/Oil taxes | ||
| Slightly Decrease | d) Property taxes | ||
| Slightly Decrease | e) Sales taxes | ||
| No | a) Tapping into Texas's "rainy day" fund | ||
| No | b) Increasing tuition rates at public universities | ||
| Yes | c) Reducing or eliminating public worker collective bargaining | ||
| Yes | d) Reducing state employee salaries AND/OR pensions | ||
| Yes | e) Instituting mandatory furloughs AND/OR layoffs for state employees | ||
| Yes | f) Reducing benefits for Medicaid recipients | ||
| Money isn't the solution for education. More efforts to privatize ALL public education should be addressed. Health care and welfare programs should be eliminated as these services should be the responsibility of the individual. State programs for law enforcement, environment, and infrastructure are reasonable functions of government. | |||
| Taxes, in general, are a necessary evil to offset the cost of state programs. Many taxes, however, are unfair and unjust. "Sin taxes" applied to the purchase of alcohol and cigarettes should be abolished. Gas/oil taxes should be reclassified as a sales tax, at best. Property and sales taxes should be reduced while focusing on streamlining government agencies and programs to balance the budget. | |||
| The "Rainy Day Fund" should be reevaluated to provide a finite method of distribution based on emergency scenarios, but debits to this account should correspond to the intent of the fund itself. By providing more private sector solutions to public policy problems, we can reduce the cost of education, pensions, and Medicaid benefits. Overall, the burden of public program funding should continuously be a smaller percentage of taxpayer equity. Let's keep the government's hands out of our wallets. | |||
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? | ||
| Campaign financing has ballooned into an outrageous "business." In order to produce candidates who are willing to serve shorts terms and return to the private sector, monumental changes to our existing campaign laws need to be implemented. To eliminate voter fraud, prerequisite identification cards should be mandated for every election. | |||
| 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? | ||
| Yes | 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? | ||
| No | 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? | ||
| Our criminal laws need major reform. Violent crimes must be handled with extreme prejudice. Non violent crimes need to be addressed with more fines and less jail time to reduce the public financial burden of punishment. Our drug policy should be completely revamped. State and local law enforcement shouldn't front the financial burden of federal law, but they should possess the authority to enforce such laws during the course of their inherent duties. | |||
| Yes | a) Do you support reducing government regulations on the private sector? | ||
| No | 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? | ||
| No | 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? | ||
| No | h) Do you support a guest worker program in Texas? | ||
| The private sector should not be impeded by government policy. Tax revenue should be applied to essential government programs such as law enforcement and infrastructure. Welfare, health care, unemployment benefits...all programs that should be eliminated altogether. Job creation, homeowner foreclosure, and minimum wages should be a product of the free market and not under the direction of government. Until we address immigration reform as a whole, a guest worker program should be tabled. | |||
| No | a) Do you support the national Common Core State Standards initiative? | ||
| Yes | b) Do you support a merit pay system for teachers? | ||
| No | c) Is the tenure process for public school teachers producing effective teachers? | ||
| Yes | 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? | ||
| No | f) Do you support the state government providing college students with financial aid? | ||
| No | g) Should illegal immigrants who graduate from Texas high schools be eligible for in-state tuition at public universities? | ||
| In general, government control of education has been a failure. In almost every situation imaginable, private sector solutions always outperform public funded programs. Taxpayer money for education should be left to the individual, or at the very most district level, to decide the most effective method of distribution. It isn't the responsibility of government to dictate education standards to individuals. | |||
| No | a) Do you support state funding for the development of alternative energy? | ||
| No | 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 Texas's energy infrastructure? | ||
| No | d) Do you support state funding for open space preservation? | ||
| Yes | e) Do you support government regulations of greenhouse gas emissions? | ||
| Innovation in energy originate in the private sector. Government oversight, while necessary to protect citizens from harmful pollutants, should not trump the fundamental philosophy of the free market economy. Infrastructure improvements are essential to limited government; however, the regulation of such should be within a finite spectrum of control. | |||
| 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? | ||
| Common sense. If a person uses a firearm to harm others...prosecute. Until a crime is committed, government should stay out of the households of its citizens. The sale and/or distribution of firearms isn't the issue that government should address. Enforcement of crimes committed by individuals must be the priority. | |||
| 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? | ||
| Yes | 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? | ||
| Let's get the government out of health care altogether. The responsibility of obtaining health care or insurance falls on the shoulder of the individual. Again, the private sector should provide this service, not the government. | |||
| Yes | a) Do you support same-sex marriage? | ||
| Yes | b) Should same-sex couples be allowed to form civil unions? | ||
| No | c) Do you support the inclusion of sexual orientation in Texas's anti-discrimination laws? | ||
| No | d) Do you support the inclusion of gender identity in Texas's anti-discrimination laws? | ||
| It's nobody's business how another person conducts themselves within a family unit...gay, straight, or otherwise. Let's remove the morality police from the equation and focus on the issues within our own homes. As for anti-discrimination laws, the language has gotten out of hand. Complete reform of these laws should be addressed. Whom someone hires should be at the discretion of the employer. | |||
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