home

Gephardt on Crime Issues

By Jeralyn, Section Elections
Posted on Sun Jun 27, 2004 at 09:20:50 AM EST
Tags: (all tags)
Share This: Digg! StumbleUpon del.icio.us reddit reddit

In our last post, we expressed our preference for John Edwards as Kerry's VP candidate. We don't want to be unfair to Dick Gephardt, since we will be supporting the team if he's the chosen one--TL is ABB (anybody but Bush) all the way--so we decided to do a little research on the issues that matter most to us. Here's what we found:

On crime and the death penalty:

  • Voted NO on funding for alternative sentencing instead of more prisons. (Jun 2000)
  • Voted NO on more prosecution and sentencing for juvenile crime. (Jun 1999)
  • Voted YES on maintaining right of habeus corpus in Death Penalty Appeals. (Mar 1996)
  • Voted NO on making federal death penalty appeals harder. (Feb 1995)
  • Voted NO on replacing death penalty with life imprisonment. (Apr 1994)
  • More funding and stricter sentencing for hate crimes. (Apr 2001)
  • Require DNA testing for all federal executions. (Mar 2001)

On Drugs

  • Voted YES on military border patrols to battle drugs & terrorism. (Sep 2001)
  • Voted NO on prohibiting needle exchange & medical marijuana in DC. (Oct 1999)
  • Voted NO on subjecting federal employees to random drug tests. (Sep 1998)

Gephardt was a co-sponsor of the Innocence Protection Act.

On Civil Rights:

  • Voted for USA Patriot Act, but it's not balanced now. (Nov 2003)
  • Democrats need to earn the vote of African-Americans. (Sep 2003)
  • We're all in it together. (Sep 2003)
  • Strike a balance between liberty and security. (Jun 2003)
  • Christian Coalition’s intolerance has no place in politics. (Jul 1999)
  • Voted NO on banning gay adoptions in DC. (Jul 1999)
  • Voted YES on Amendment to prohibit burning the US flag. (Jun 1999)
  • Voted NO on ending preferential treatment by race in college admissions. (May 1998)
  • Constitutional Amendment for equal rights by gender. (Mar 2001)

On Immigration Reform:

  • Immigration service is a mess and needs reform. (Jan 11)
  • Federal government should help illegal immigrants. (Jan 11)
  • Legalize all immigrants who've been productive for 5 years. (Sep 2003)
  • Bush tax plan is a failure-return to Clinton tax plan. (Sep 2003)
  • Celebrate diversity and welcome hard-working immigrants. (Jan 2002)
  • Nothing wrong with immigrants, but Americans in jobs better. (Jul 1999)
  • Voted YES on extending Immigrant Residency rules. (May 2001)
  • Voted YES on more immigrant visas for skilled workers. (Sep 1998)

How does Edwards compare? See here and here.

As we opined here, John Edwards support for the death penalty and his lack of support for medical marijuana is a negative in our view and one of the reasons we'd rather he be Vice-President than Attorney General.

< Kerry and Edwards: Fear Factor | Torture Techniques on Hold >

  • The Online Magazine with Liberal coverage of crime-related political and injustice news

  • Contribute To TalkLeft


    • Display: Sort:
    Gephardt on Crime Issues | 0 comments ( topical)