Diana DeGette
Party: Democrat
Residence: Denver
Campaign website: www.degette.com
What Makes you the best Choice for this Office?
I believe that I am the best choice for this office due to my seniority in the House, record of progressive legislating while also achieving bipartisan results, and my commitment to delivering for Coloradoans and the American people.
If you are elected, which one single issue will be at the top of your agenda?
Promoting access to quality health care including the full range of women’s reproductive care.
For all of the good that the Affordable Care Act has done in the past 10 years, healthcare in the United States still does not cover everyone, not everyone who has access to coverage can afford to use it, and prescription drug costs are too high.
Additionally, this is also an issue that I can address through my role as a senior member of the Energy and Commerce Committee and chair of the Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations.
If you are elected, what must you accomplish in order to consider your term a success.
Passing legislation that makes a true difference in people’s lives. That can be through standalone legislation like my 21st Century Cures Act, or by adding amendments to legislation on the floor such as the amendment I have successfully added to the past two years’ EPA funding bill requiring the agency to identify and clean up 100 communities across the nation that are disproportionally suffering from large amounts of pollution.
What measure or measures will you push for in the new year to make strides toward economic recovery form the COVID-19 pandemic?
My top priorities are helping the families and small business owners who are struggling to make ends meet because of the pandemic. This includes more PPP loans, more Economic Impact Statements, reinstating the additional $600 federal unemployment increase and passing rental and mortgage assistance.
We also need to ensure that state and local governments have the resources they need to respond and maintain critical government functions with the decrease in tax revenues.
What is the one thing congress can do to achieve social justice?
One thing we can do is ensure that corporations and the wealthy pay their fair share in taxes. This must be the cornerstone of our tax system. Our nation’s long term fiscal outlook must be secure while being able to make the investments and reinvestment in infrastructure, education and workers that will keep America competitive long into the 21st century.
Paul Noel Fiorino
Party: Unity Party of America/Colorado
Residence: Denver
Campaign website: https://fiorinoforcolorado.com/
What makes you the best choice for this office?
I have eight campaigns that have kept the dialogue on the arts in participation of the governments, local and national. Colorado is the top in the nation, and we need to lead for more arts education with a basis of dance awareness.
The election of an artist, advocate and TV producer would bring Congress into the next evolution of the broadband, cloud, BankingTech and environmental hope for the sustainable future economy for health and the pursuit of happiness in Denver, Colorado, America and the world. A positive attitude of change.
If you’re elected, which one single issue will be at the top of your agenda?
The National Endowments for Arts and Humanities are constantly undergoing attacks by executive orders or by our president and congressional leaders who have no regard for their ownership. You have a legacy in YOUR ENDOWMENTS and they need to be protected, along with freedom of expression and speech. They should be a political force for diplomacy and the pride of a nation. Cultural differences are the most important to uphold in a democracy and to have representation is paramount to maintain a Republic.
If you’re elected, what must you accomplish in order for you to consider your term a success?
Denver has the distinction of the cable capital of the world, and the next phase will be satellite internet and broadband networks, and .coms in every home for education and information programs. Productivity growth is happening now. The support of the television industry has the facilities and technology to accommodate it all.
Teaching for the 21st Century will be by screen for many and possibly for the future of urban and rural community and schools, public, private, charter, etc. Getting the services needed is the challenge now.
What measure or measures will you push for in the new year to make strides toward economic recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic?
The COVID19 pandemic has no boundaries. The effect of it on our economy and sanity is preparing us all for new paradigms. I think it’s time for the bipartisan issue of Universal Basic Income (UBI) to be considered for the changes in the employment sector. Gas and oil in Colorado will be the ones to develop their transition to a more sustainable environment where Colorado also leads.
A state bank in the post office can model the unique experiment with accessibility to those who need, and credits to those who choose to reinvest in the valued nonprofit community that one day may take care of you.
What is one thing Congress can do to achieve social justice?
Pass legislation to reform the penal system and do away with the private for-profit prisons with the highways of felons who move from place-to-place using valued tax dollars and keep one guessing where they are. The overbearing costs and the amount of time and resources that Colorado has to expend, and the abuses on the guardians and inmates is taking its toll.
Release and parole more, and adjust sentences to fit the crime. Time served should not mean you lose your citizenship and can’t vote. They should still maintain that privilege and support the constitutional right to vote. Voter suppression is a real problem today.
Jan Kok
Party: Approval Voting Party
Residence: Fort Collins
Website: approvalvotingparty.com
What makes you the best choice for this office?
I’m the only candidate whose No. 1 issue is election reform. Government has an enormous influence on our lives. It controls our health care options, it decides who we go to war with, it takes a large fraction of our income from us in direct and indirect taxes. Thus, the type of leaders we elect also greatly affects our lives. Our vote-for-one voting method is defective. In elections with more than two candidates running, it can fail to elect the most-preferred candidate. My mission is to promote better voting methods that can make better choices of winners.
If you’re elected, which one single issue will be at the top of your agenda?
Election reform. In Florida 2000, more voters preferred Gore over Bush (if you include the Nader voters who preferred Gore), yet Bush won. And it can just as easily go the other way. In 1992, more voters preferred Bush over Clinton, yet Clinton won. I will promote Approval Voting which allows voters to vote for as many candidates as they like, and whoever gets the most votes wins. Approval Voting can reduce or eliminate the “wrong winner” phenomenon, the “spoiler” and “vote splitting” effects, and other problems with our vote-for-one voting method.
If you’re elected, what must you accomplish in order for you to consider your term a success?
Introduce a bill with the support of at least 20 co-sponsors that enables states to use Approval Voting in federal-level elections, and removes barriers to the use of proportional representation voting methods in elections for state legislatures and the U.S. House of Representatives.
What measure or measures will you push for in the new year to make strides toward economic recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic?
Getting the pandemic itself under control is still high priority. Let the CDC continue its job of providing science-based information on how to prevent the spread of diseases.
Businesses are doing a good job of adapting to the pandemic. Many people are now working from home. Grocery stores and restaurants are taking orders online and providing curbside and home delivery service. Doctors are seeing patients through online video calls. Students are attending classes online. I don’t think the federal government can do anything to help the economy more than state governments, businesses and individuals are already doing.
What is one thing Congress can do to achieve social justice?
Repeal laws against victimless crimes. The U.S. (the “land of the free”) has the highest incarceration rate of any country in the world. That’s absurd and outrageous – and expensive in human and monetary costs. About half of those incarcerated are there for nonviolent drug crimes. Drug addiction should be addressed by schools, doctors and psychological counselors, not by heavy-handed government.
***Candidates Shane Bolling, Republican; and Kyle Furey, Libertarian, did not return Colorado Community Media’s questionnaire.