The Issues |
Stan Matsunaka |
Marilyn Musgrave |
| Education |
Top priority is public education. Stan Matsunaka's top legislative priority is strengthening public education for our children, because he believes that public schools are the best system to provide a strong education to all children.
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Voted to cut funding for public education. Marilyn Musgrave has voted to cut funding for public education, voted to cut funding for libraries, and favors using public money to fund wealthy private schools and their students. She has also voted in favor of a bill to take tax refund money and put it into a wealthy private school voucher program.
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| Choice |
Stan Matsunaka is pro-choice. He believes that the government has no place regulating the intensely personal decision that a woman faces. This difficult decision should be made between a woman and her doctor.
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Marilyn Musgrave is anti-choice. She describes herself as "100% Pro-life." She opposes a woman's right to choose even in the case of rape, incest, or to save the life of the mother.
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| Tax Relief |
Voted for more than 30 tax cuts. Stan Matsunaka has voted for more than 30 tax cuts, and has been an unswerving advocate for lowering the tax burden on working families. His voting record on tax cuts includes three votes to cut taxes that his opponent opposed. These tax cuts were an earned income tax credit, and two low-income housing credits, that have benefited low-income working families.
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Voted against 3 tax cuts for working families. Marilyn Musgrave has voted against three tax cuts targeted to benefit Colorado's working families (HB99-1383, HB00-1302, HB01-1334). These three tax cuts had strong bipartisan support, and Governor Bill Owens signed each one of the measures that Musgrave opposed.
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| Medicare and Prescription Drugs |
Voted to reduce the cost of Rx drugs. Stan Matsunaka will fight to reduce the cost and increase the accessibility of prescription drugs for all Americans. He has sponsored and supported numerous measures to make life-saving prescription drugs more affordable.
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Voted against reducing cost of Rx drugs. Marilyn Musgrave believes that private industry can be trusted to provide adequate care for our seniors. She has voted against lowering the price of prescription drugs and against expanding drug coverage. She was joined by only two other Colorado State Senators in voting against a bill studying the offer of state health insurance to small employers. Marilyn Musgrave has taken $2000 from GlaxoSmithKline, a large pharmaceutical, and $2000 from Cigna Corporation PAC, an insurance company.
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| Working Families |
Voted to lower tax burden on working families. Stan Matsunaka has consistently supported lowering the tax burden on working families. He has fought for the rights of workers for eight years in the state legislature, and he will carry that fight to Congress.
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Sponsored anti-worker legislation. Marilyn Musgrave opposed worker-safety programs, and even voted against a bill providing three days unpaid leave to employees seeking protection against domestic abuse (HB02-1051).
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| Legislative Effectiveness |
Known as a moderate who gets the job done. Stan Matsunaka has earned a reputation in the legislature for working with both Republicans and Democrats—putting aside partisan differences and doing whatever it takes to get the job done.
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A self-described "partisan conservative." Marilyn Musgrave is focused on a narrow social agenda to the exclusion of important issues such as education, transportation, and health care.
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| Social Security |
Strongly opposes privatizing Social Security. Stan Matsunaka has signed a pledge against privatizing Social Security. In Congress Stan will work to protect our future from corporate raiding and ensure that every American will enjoy a secure retirement.
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Supports partial privatization of Social Security. Marilyn Musgrave supports privatizing a portion of Social Security—which threatens the health and security of the program.
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| National Security |
Supports more security with less bureaucracy. Stan Matsunaka supports the President's actions on Iraq, and supports the amended resolution that Congress has passed.
Stan Matsunaka believes that we need more security with less bureaucracy. He supports President Bush's reorganization of the federal government to create the new Department of Homeland Security. We must dismantle expensive and antiquated Cold War relics and redirect the money to confront the elusive threat of terrorists. We need smarter, leaner, more responsive military forces to ensure America's security.
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Supports re-instituting the draft. Marilyn Musgrave supports the President's actions on Iraq, and supports the amended resolution that Congress has passed.
Marilyn Musgrave has said that she favors re-instituting the draft—compulsory military service. The draft might have been the answer during World War II, but pouring more men into the modern military will increase the cost without increasing our security. A bloated military cannot protect America from the modern threat of individual terrorists.
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| Seniors |
Favors common-sense nursing home reforms. Stan Matsunaka has consistently voted in favor of common-sense nursing home reforms that had bipartisan support.
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Against protecting nursing home residents. Marilyn Musgrave has voted again and again to kill protections for nursing home residents.
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| Second Amendment Rights |
Supports responsible gun ownership. Stan Matsunaka supports responsible gun ownership by law-abiding citizens, and co-sponsored shall-carry legislation (HB02-1410) during the most recent regular session.
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Supports laws that would allow guns in schools. Marilyn Musgrave supports gun ownership and loosening restrictions on gun carry laws. She voted in favor of HB02-1410.
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| Drought Solutions |
Supports both long-term and immediate solutions. Stan Matsunaka voted in favor of $10 billion in new water storage facilities, because he knows we must provide for water storage solutions for the next 30-50 years.
But Stan also knows we must get the crops to market next year and in ensure water solutions in the short term. An aggressive program of dredging and repairs of our existing facilities can improve Colorado's water capacity by 40% in the next 2-5 years. more
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Her long-term plan ignores today's water needs. Marilyn Musgrave favors long-term water storage solutions also, but she has said nothing about how we will help farmers and ranchers in the short term. New water storage facilities are at least 10 years off, and Colorado needs drought relief now. Musgrave's long-term plan ignores Colorado's immediate water needs.
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| Energy |
Strong proponent of renewable energy. Stan Matsunaka is a strong proponent of renewable energy, and has worked to promote renewable energy. Stan believes the Eastern Plains are an excellent place for the creation of jobs in renewable industries: biomass fuels, wind farms, and clean-burning fuels.
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Votes with special interests that pollute our air and water. Marilyn Musgrave votes with special interests to degrade clean air and water standards. She has taken $1,000 in campaign contributions from Chevron/Texaco and $5,000 from Exxon-Mobil.
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| Growth |
Supports responsible growth. Stan Matsunaka has worked to promote responsible growth in Colorado. He worked on bipartisan growth legislation in 2001 that would encourage growth while diffusing the impact on our transportation and education infrastructure, and sponsored a key measure to empower local governments to provide smart growth incentives in their communities (SB02-110).
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Voted against, then for, responsible growth. Marilyn Musgrave voted against Stan's Smart Growth measure (SB02-110) in the Senate Committee on Public Policy, but eventually came around to Stan's point of view and voted in favor of final passage of the bill. Marilyn Musgrave has taken a total of $6000 from the Crow family, of Crow Holdings, one of the largest real estate developers in the world.
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| Immigration |
Favors more legal and less illegal immigration. Stan Matsunaka believes Hispanic and other immigrants play a vital role in Colorado's business and agricultural industries, but current law ties up the immigration process and makes it arduous and unproductive. By the time immigrants receive permission to come to the U.S. and work legally, the growing season has ended. We must streamline the immigration process to get legal immigrants in and out efficiently.
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Staunchly anti-immigration. Marilyn Musgrave supports drastically curtailing legal immigration. Musgrave has taken $1000 from Tom Tancredo (www.fec.gov), and she supports Amendment 31 (Rocky Mountain News candidate questionnaire).
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