John Hodgson

Life of the mother in danger

Strongly Agree

No public funds should be expended for abortion providers

Yes

Yes, this is necessary to make it clear to future Legislative bodies and courts

Strongly Disagree

A person should have the autonomy to decline forced feeding and life support with an advance directive or living will, but assisted suicide should not be legal.

Eliminate production-based taxes like personal income tax, and replace them with consumption-based taxes like sales tax. In general, the tax code should be simplified and streamlined.

KY has a balanced budget law, so this is always accomplished before budgets are passed. What items get cut are a matter of biannual budget negotiations. Any excess funds should be used to reduce the KY Debt and unfunded liabilities. Government should be as lean and efficient as possible to carry out its Constitutionally defined duties to the public.

Disagree

K-12 education is already funded, and many vocational degrees beyond high school are funded as well. It is a mistake to coerce kids into an expensive 4-year college program that may not enhance their future ability to be employed. College degrees do not guarantee jobs or high incomes, but they do cost a lot in tuition and student debt. Degrees that are in demand by business and industry are frequently sponsored and funded by scholarships.

Strongly Disagree

We must protect a person's right of conscience.

None. Please reference the 1st Amendment. Adults can freely attend church at their own risk, regardless of circumstances. A possible exception would be if all buildings had to be evacuated for a local emergency - fire, war, chemical spill, etc., but in no case should churches be singled out for closure while other buildings in an area remained occupied or other groups are allowed to meet.

C), but only because Medicaid and Medicare are too deeply entrenched to remove without creating a medical crisis for millions of vulnerable citizens. That being said, providing medical care is not a proper Constitutional role of the Federal Government. Private and charitable healthcare options should be made available without government interference. Government makes everything more expensive and complicated.

None. There must always be personal medical and conscience exemptions. People with active contagious disease might need to be temporarily restricted from entering areas containing medically vulnerable people. The recent Covid mandates have skewed our perceptions on this issue, with the focus of restrictions on healthy people vs sick people. If the risk of severe illness and death is genuine, and the vaccination program is demonstrably effective, you don't have to coerce most people to take it to protect themselves.

Ideologies that promote the violent overthrow of the US government or advocate violence towards citizens should not be allowed to promulgated freely, although warrant-less spying on US citizens should not be allowed. Those committing violent acts of terror must be removed from society. Foreign actors who strike at US territories or citizens must be swiftly repressed with military force. The recent political and media re-labeling of non-violent political disagreement or pubic protest as "terrorism" is a problem we must address as well.

Strongly Disagree

Israel has had a clear legal right to exist in International Law since at least 1948, and has a right to defend itself from both invasion and violent insurrection. The so-called "occupied territories" were acquired when acts of war were committed against Israel from those territories, and they were subsequently conquered by Israel to eliminate the threat of aggressive violence. Many nations administer territory conquered in war, like the Guantanamo Bay base the US has held in Cuba since 1898.

Strongly Agree

A nation without secure borders cannot exist long as a nation. What we are seeing right now on the southern border is an invasion of foreign actors, some hostile to the US and its citizens - it is not immigration. Immigration laws should be enforced. The Wall should be completed.

There exists a path to citizenship for those who embrace American values and follow the law. Those bringing needed and valuable skills to our country to participate in the economy should be the majority of immigrants, as they have been for 200+ years. Asylum seekers who face genuine threat of death at home should have their cases considered, but only allowed to immigrate if they agree to be assimilated into the American culture and follow the laws. The US should not be presented as an attractive destination for those who seek taxpayer funded free food, lodging, and healthcare without meaningfully participating in the US economy. The unique American "melting pot" culture must be maintained - E Pluribus Unum - out of many, one.

Strongly Agree

Absolutely. We need to fund students, not buildings or systems. Education tax dollars should follow the child to any chosen educational program. Freedom of choice and competition will raise the performance of all educational options.

Strongly Agree

George Washington said: "Of all the dispositions and habits which lead to political prosperity, religion and morality are indispensable supports." President John Adams said: “Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious People. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.” If individuals will not voluntarily restrain their own behavior by their personal morals, we cannot hire enough police to restrain evil behavior.

Strongly Disagree

It is a free country, and people should not be discriminated against for their personal immutable characteristics. Creating a special class of protection when such "gender identity" is now considered "fluid" vs fixed is problematic. For example, a man should not be able to put on a dress and enter a women's restroom or similar facility where the safety of women could be compromised.

Strongly Disagree

Martin Luther King dreamed of an America where his children would be judged by the content of their character, not the color of their skin. CRT asserts that the color of your skin actually determines your character, and whether you are an oppressor or a victim, and CRT itself is therefore fundamentally racist. Regarding civil rights, both Lincoln and MLK relied on: "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are Created equal"

I am a follower of Jesus Christ, and I believe the Bible is God's instruction book for an abundant life, and I strive to conduct myself accordingly as both an individual and a member of society. I also believe that the Creator endowed us all with unalienable natural rights to life, liberty and property, and that the purpose of Government is to secure those rights, not infringe upon them. The building blocks of society are individuals with a moral compass who build strong families, strong churches, and strong communities. That strength comes from shared values.

Strongly Agree

Marriage as invented by God is a covenant between one man and one woman, and is not a creation of government. Western Civilization has traditionally associated some legal rights as coexisting with the marriage covenant. The federal government has no constitutional business making laws that affect or define marriage one way or the other. Free individuals can create any nature of contractual, financial and and legal commitment between themselves that they want.

Strongly Disagree

Government issued photo ID is readily available, and is required for almost all transactions of normal life. No one should vote without photo ID, or a signed, sworn affidavit under penalty of perjury that they are who they say they are if ID was unavailable for some reason.

KY has passed several good laws in the last 2 years about voting, containing many of these concepts: Voter rolls should be cleaned regularly and quickly, and available to watchdog organizations to identify potential fraudulent registration. Votes should be in person during a very limited timeframe, with ID, unless someone has a valid medical restriction or is out of town with a legally valid excuse (like military service or college). No "mail in" voting should be allowed, outside a rigorously controlled absentee ballot request and response process for limited situations. Votes should be hand marked by the voter on paper, with exceptions only for ADA ballot marking. Ballots may be initially tallied by a non-internet connected scanner, but available for human eyeball recount/audit as needed. It should be a felony to connect a voting machine to the internet, or to electronically transmit any election results outside of the approved government tally system. All transactions should be witnessed by at least 2 humans of opposing parties. All voting records must be kept for 22 months or more, and available for FOIA request and inspection of the public. Votes should be counted at the precinct level by officers of opposing parties on election night, and posted for public view. In no case should ballots be aggregated in some central counting house and counted out of public view, or counted beyond election night. Absentee ballots should not be valid if received after election day. Drop boxes should be very limited, secure, and monitored 7x24. Any extraordinary cases of extended counting should be under continuous public and judicial scrutiny - fraud happens in the dark. There are those who will always try to cheat in elections, and methods have to evolve to prevent and catch cheating. No election is pristine and without irregularities, and most are not without some level of cheating or fraud.

No. The very definition of "racism" is under question today. I define racism as treating someone badly or unfairly due to the color of their skin or other racial characteristics. The United States is not a "systemically racist" country - people of all races have succeeded in reaching the highest possible social, economic and political levels. Equal opportunity and equal treatment under the law are what we should always strive for.

Strongly Disagree

Every person is accountable for their own actions during their lifetime, and we do not punish people for "the sins of the fathers" as totalitarian cultures do. America is a melting-pot culture of many races, with many inter-racial families for hundreds of years. Most people have some ancestor who has suffered some economic injustice from someone in the last 275 years. To attempt to legally and financially sort out "who owes who" for injustice before any of their births is unrealistic.

A) We all want clean air and clean water. That has largely been addressed in America with existing pollution laws. As an engineer and a conservationist with 40 years experience, I think the so called "Green New Deal" is scientifically invalid, practically infeasible, and financially disastrous. The Green New Deal is a massive socialist scheme to redistribute wealth on a global scale, and would absolutely destroy the American and possibly global economy. Decades long studies show that economically prosperous economies over time pollute less and less as technology improves. Most of the people weighing in on this debate have no practical personal experience with things like renewable energy, conservation and efficiency improvements.

Agree

America needs to be energy independent with the resources we own. Fracking needs to be regulated and monitored so that unscrupulous drillers do not create excessive or permanent damage to the local ecosystem. Every energy system, including solar and wind, produce damaging effects on the ecosystem. There is no such thing as environmental risk-free energy, at least not yet.

Government exists to secure the God-given natural rights of the people, and with the consent of the governed, to establish justice, ensure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, and promote the general welfare, end ensure the blessings of liberty for ourselves and our posterity, according to our Founding documents. Government does not exist to eliminate all fear, risk or danger for individuals, or to serve as the "nanny state" providing cradle to grave instruction on how the citizens live their daily lives.

Very Conservative

I am a liberty-loving, Constitutional,Conservative with Christian values. My core values influence my policy positions. Not every public policy issue fits neatly into a labeled category. God granted us our rights, the government should protect them, and the government should not seek to monitor and control the lives of citizens, or meddle in the internal affairs of other sovereign nations. Government should be as small as possible.

Links to 3 of my published articles: https://www.standingforfreedom.com/2020/03/government-is-like-fire-a-dangerous-servant-and-a-fearful-master/ https://www.standingforfreedom.com/2020/05/what-is-the-source-of-our-american-laws/ https://www.standingforfreedom.com/2020/07/the-us-constitution-an-overnight-success-1000-years-in-the-making/

no

My animating values are Faith, Family and Freedom. I want smaller government, lower taxes, less regulation. As a husband, father and new grandfather, I want to pass the blessings of freedom and liberty on to the next generations. My legislative priorities will include protecting the rights of citizens from unconstitutional intrusion of government into their lives, via surveillance, privacy violations, illegal mandates, and other forms of coercive control. To make America flourish, we need to empower individuals to form strong families, churches and communities, and empower farms, businesses, and nonprofits to meet the needs of the citizens without excessive government interference. America has been the beacon of freedom to the whole world, and we must renew the commitment to make it ever so.

Agree

If they follow department policy, yes. This is an area where we must strike a very delicate balance between protecting police officers and protecting suspects. Police should be liable for serious deviation from procedure, wanton disregard of rights, or excessive violence in individual cases where someone is harmed unnecessarily . For instance, arrests for non-violent crime should not result in permanent injuries for the suspect.

Disagree

Mental health and community programs are needed, but not at the expense of police funding.

Very few. The right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed. Self-protection is a God-given right. Any restriction of gun ownership due to felony conviction or dangerous mental illness should be given due process of law in a court setting. I am firmly against "red flag laws".

Strongly Disagree

People commit crimes, objects do not. If some futuristic gun became automated, and acted without human control, I might be inclined to change my stance.

No

We have a wide variety of commercial gambling options available now, and individuals can gamble with each other for entertainment without legal restriction. "Expanded gambling" refers to the State granting an exclusive business license to some business to run a predatory gambling enterprise for profit, that will return a portion of the "take" to the state in taxes. This is not a good deal for the taxpayers. Increased social costs are likely to exceed tax benefits.

Strongly Agree

Adults are free to make choices about how they dress, and about personal medial procedures; parents are involved in such choices for their children. Allowing males to pose as females to enter female restrooms and shower facilities, etc. endangers women and girls. Allowing men to compete in sports as women reverses 50 years of gains women and girls have made in sports since Title IX was passed to equalize scholarship opportunities and funding for female athletics - it harms women.