Charlene DiCalogero's Issue Positions (Political Courage Test)
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Charlene DiCalogero has failed to provide voters with positions on key issues covered by the 2020 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.
Massachusetts State Legislative Election 2016 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? | ||
| No | e) Do you support requiring parental notification before an abortion is performed on a minor? | ||
| No | 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? | ||
| All women deserve access to health care, including reproductive health care. Women have the right to control what happens medically to our bodies, in consultation with our health care professionals. Women's hard-won rights to control our own lives are being attacked by those who wish to distract from the most critical issues of our time: massive income inequality and concentration of wealth and power in the hands of a tiny minority, the destruction of our environment and climate, and the buying of our democracy by the highest bidder. | |||
1) Budget Stabilization:Indicate which proposals you support (if any) for balancing Massachusetts's budget.2) State Spending: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.3) State Taxes: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.
| No | a) Tapping into Massachusetts's "rainy day" fund | ||
| No | b) Decreasing funding for public universities | ||
| No | c) Reducing state employee salaries AND/OR pensions | ||
| No | d) Instituting mandatory furloughs AND/OR layoffs for state employees | ||
| No | e) Reducing benefits for Medicaid recipients | ||
| Greatly Increase | a) Education (higher) | ||
| Slightly Increase | b) Education (K-12) | ||
| Greatly Increase | c) Environment | ||
| Maintain Status | d) Health care | ||
| Greatly Decrease | e) Law enforcement/corrections | ||
| Greatly Increase | f) Transportation/infrastructure | ||
| Greatly Increase | g) Welfare | ||
| a) Alcohol taxes | |||
| b) Cigarette taxes | |||
| Greatly Increase | c) Corporate taxes | ||
| Maintain Status | d) Small business taxes | ||
| e) Gas/Oil taxes | |||
| f) Property taxes | |||
| Slightly Decrease | g) Sales taxes | ||
| Eliminate | h) Income taxes (low-income families) | ||
| Maintain Status | i) Income taxes (mid-income families) | ||
| Greatly Increase | j) Income taxes (high-income families) | ||
| k) Do you support applying sales taxes to all online purchases? | |||
| The easiest, most efficient and fair way to balance the MA budget is to fairly tax wealthy residents and corporations. They have the money, and they benefit disproportionately from public expenditures. We could also decrease spending by ending privatization of public services, which hurts taxpayers by making us pay for the profits of private companies, and hurts MA workers by underpaying them. If we also make the MA minimum wage a living wage, we'll lower the $ we now spend in public assistance to make up for the sub-poverty wages that corporations such as Wal-mart get away with now. | |||
| We have underfunded public education and other needs at every level for at least a decade. If we redirect *how* funds are spent, especially in K-12, we might not need much more. Yearly standardized testing is a huge waste of money that could be better spent hiring more teachers in high-needs schools to lower class size. We could drop expensive, ineffective publisher programs and technologies and redirect the funds to the single most important school factor in student achievement: the teacher. Teachers should get long-term coaching and professional development from successful, trained coaches and teacher leaders, using research-supported approaches. | |||
| Sales taxes are an unfair burden on low-income folks--they are the most likely to buy locally, which helps our local and state economies, and usually spend their money on the bare necessities. We should increase luxury taxes, which are not listed here. People buying houses over 3,000 square feet could pay a luxury house tax, since their houses require disproportionate energy expenditures to build and maintain, which contributes to the climate crisis. Similarly, income taxes should be graduated--5% of $30,000 income is a survival issue, whereas 10% of $300,000 is not. | |||
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? | ||
| No | e) Do you support requiring a government-issued photo identification in order to vote at the polls? | ||
| Big money in elections and government affects every other issue MA residents care about. I limit contributions to my campaign to $100/yr/individual, and refuse SuperPAC and corporate lobbyist donations. We need the state constitutional amendment I have supported since 2015, which states that corporations are not people and may be regulated, and money is not speech. What if we ended corporate lobbyist contributions? What if the wealthy 1% (even out-of-state) could no longer select and purchase "our" legislators? Bay Staters could be heard and legislation for the 99% could be passed. We can have real democracy if we demand it. | |||
| No | 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? | ||
| No | d) Should a minor accused of a violent crime be prosecuted as an adult? | ||
| No | e) Do you support the enforcement of federal immigration laws by state and local police? | ||
| Yes | f) Do you support delaying the seizure of assets by law enforcement officials until after a conviction? | ||
| Yes | g) Do you support additional funding for programs intended to reduce drug addiction in Massachusetts? | ||
| I support increased prosecution, fining and imprisonment of corporate criminals. Part of why our state budget is out of whack is the huge amount spent on mass incarceration. Many thousands not convicted of any crime are imprisoned because jails have become de facto debtors' prisons and immigrant detention centers. Punishing people for being poor or unemployed hurts everyone. We can create more jobs, support community policing and end discriminatory policing. Let's prohibit profiteering from what is essentially slave labor, by private companies who exploit prison labor. Let's restore education and meaningful job training for those people who are serving time. | |||
| Yes | a) Do you support government spending as a means of promoting economic growth? | ||
| b) Do you support lowering taxes as a means of promoting economic growth? | |||
| No | c) Do you support reducing government regulations on the private sector? | ||
| Yes | d) Do you support increased state funding for job-training programs that re-train displaced workers? | ||
| Yes | e) Do you support expanding access to unemployment benefits? | ||
| No | f) Do you support requiring welfare applicants to pass a drug test in order to receive benefits? | ||
| No | g) Do you support providing financial incentives to the private sector for the purpose of job creation? | ||
| h) Do you support providing direct financial assistance to homeowners facing foreclosure? | |||
| Yes | i) Do you support an increase of the minimum wage? | ||
| No | j) Should employers be able to ask about applicants' criminal history before interviewing them? | ||
| Regulation is an economic, justice and environmental issue: regulation should be about protecting the public. We must hold businesses responsible for environmental damage and other kinds of malfeasance, such as Wells Fargo's credit card scam. The financial sector used deregulation to bring the economy down to the tune of billions in public and individual losses, not to mention the loss of 5 million homes through foreclosures, just in the first year of the crisis, often illegal. Deregulation usually helps the wealthy. Sensible regulation helps everyone. We need to restore due process for property taking, and reverse illegal foreclosures. | |||
| 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? | ||
| No | d) Should parents be allowed to use vouchers to send their children to any school? | ||
| No | e) Do you support state funding for charter schools? | ||
| Yes | f) Do you support the state government providing college students with financial aid? | ||
| Yes | g) Should illegal immigrants who graduate from Massachusetts high schools be eligible for in-state tuition at public universities? | ||
| In order to obtain federal funds, states were forced to adopt the Common Core Standards. Corporate interests drove the CCSS push, profiteering from them and the associated overtesting. No teachers or credible education researchers participated in the CCSS' creation. If they had, we'd have workable guidelines that states and districts could tailor to the needs of their students. Research shows merit pay does not motivate nonprofit/government professionals. If we equitably fund schools, raise educator salaries and fully staff schools in the poorest districts, *all* our schools will be the best in the nation, instead of most of them. | |||
| Yes | a) Do you support state funding for the development of renewable energy (e.g. solar, wind, thermal)? | ||
| No | b) Do you support state funding for the development of traditional domestic energy sources (e.g. coal, natural gas, oil)? | ||
| c) Do you support state funding for improvements to Massachusetts's energy infrastructure? | |||
| Yes | d) Do you support state funding for open space preservation? | ||
| Yes | e) Do you support government regulations of greenhouse gas emissions? | ||
| f) Do you support increased regulations of the hydraulic fracturing ("fracking") industry? | |||
| Fracking is especially dirty fuel that dumps huge amounts of greenhouse gas emissions into the air, and pollutes water supplies--let's get rid of it. I support funding for improvements to electrical infrastructure, and for fixing gas pipeline leaks--gas we pay for but never use. | |||
| Yes | a) Do you generally support gun-control legislation? | ||
| Yes | b) Should background checks be required on gun sales between private citizens at gun shows? | ||
| c) Should citizens be allowed to carry concealed guns? | |||
| Yes | d) Should a license be required for gun possession? | ||
| Every time I drive down I-84 and pass the Sandy Hook exit, I remember the 20 children and 6 teachers who died because of our unwillingness to ban all assault weapons. Civilians have no need for these guns. A friend's 13-year-old son died because his playmates' father left a loaded gun under a pillow--to protect his antique guns. Jill Stein, Green presidential candidate, physician and noted public health advocate, says those with guns in the home are 22 times more likely to have a household member be killed or injured with them than to use them in self defense. | |||
| Yes | 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? | ||
| c) Do you support interstate health insurance compacts? | |||
| Yes | d) Do you support Medicaid expansion under the Affordable Care Act ("Obamacare")? | ||
| 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? | ||
| When we get the profit motive out of basic human needs, we all win. Health care will be cheaper and more accessible because we're not paying for an insurer's mansion or yacht, or for outrageously and arbitrarily priced medications. Doctors will be able to do what's best for the patient instead of worrying about whether they're going to get paid or whether their patient can afford the treatment. Medicare has worked for decades for seniors--it can work for everyone. | |||
| Yes | a) Do you support same-sex marriage? | ||
| Yes | b) Do you support the inclusion of sexual orientation in Massachusetts's anti-discrimination laws? | ||
| Yes | c) Do you support the inclusion of gender identity in Massachusetts's anti-discrimination laws? | ||
| My family has supported me 100% in my right to choose a partner based on love and respect, whatever their gender. Clearly, MA has been and will continue to be a leader in respecting the human rights of people who identify as LGBTQI. I attended one of the first lesbian weddings in the state as a friend of both the brides, and it was one of the most joyful celebrations I have ever been part of. | |||
| 1. Create a Green economy for the 99%, while saving present and future generations from global warming; divest from fossil fuels. 2. Pass first-in-the-nation legislation to create a democratic system we can all be proud of: the state constitutional amendment affirming that corporations are not people and may be regulated, and money is not speech, so we can get big money and corporate influence out of elections and government. Institute "Ranked Choice Voting" so no one is ever again pressured to vote for any candidate they don't support. 3. Reverse illegal foreclosures and end predatory lending; forgive oppressive student debt. |
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