At Large Senate Candidate Q&A

[LastVoter]

Following the model that worked in the Mideast and Northeast regions, I am opening this Q&A session for the candidates.

Here is the first set:

1. Why are you running for the Senate? What can you do to improve the quality of Senate debates?

2. What is your ideology and how does it impact your decision-making? What will your top policy priorities be during your term, if elected?

3. What is your opinion of the current Senate session's work (legislation, activity, and debates)?

1. To continue the defense of labor and working class against corporate interests.
2. Social democracy, with a goal of eventually achieving democratic socialism. That means protection of the safety net, and goal of eventual non-private ownership. That means promotion of public ownership, trade and industrial unions, and worker's co-operatives.
3. Negative, after wide public support for game reform, we still have senate mostly supporting the conservative election methods based on regions and arbitrary land divides, where true public representation cannot be achieved. Instead the effort was redirected to an attempted court pack. Also we have some neocons trying to stage an attack on Iran. The biggest issue is that there hasn't been any meaningful pro-labor reform in the current Senate.

[LastVoter]

Here are some more questions:

1. What are your areas of expertise? Do you have knowledge on particular issues that would be unique within the Senate?

2. Would you aspire to serve on any of the established Committees? Do you think there are additional Committees worth creating? Do you feel committees have or can enhance the work of the Senate?

3. What measures would you support to stimulate the economy?

4.

If I may, I'd like to ask each candidate where they stand on crime and what they think should be done to prevent future shootings like the ones we've been seeing in Colorado, Wisconsin, and Texas.  Do you support any new gun control legislation or right-to-carry laws?  Should we put more police on the streets and impose harsher penalties for crimes?  Should law enforcement focus more on punishment or rehabilitation for criminals?  How can we assist local communities in combating crime while respecting civil liberties?

1. I am going to spend my next term protecting Atlasian democracy. It has lately come under attack in an attempted court pack. I will also continue to explore options for electing members to legislative bodies that truly represent the diverse viewpoints of Atlasian citizens. The current IRV system is heavily biased to electing centrist candidates. Also regional representation violates one man one vote.
2. I currently serve on the Judiciary committee, I will work on creating a labor committee, to follow up on the legislation that I recently introduced that deals with FoxConn plants and overseas labor.
3. The Atlasian economy needs a new infrastructure that will be up to 21st century standards.
4. There should be a referendum for Atlasian people to decide. There should be more services available for mentally ill and we should work as a culture on removing stigmatization of seeking treatment.

[LastVoter]

I'd also like to say that I will work on creating a nationalized public upper education system that doesn't burden graduates and their parents with debt. It's very unfair for college education to be un-affordable for poorer graduates where it's almost necessary for social mobility in today's society.

[LastVoter]

Seatown, can you expand on what infrastructure improvements would get us to meet 21st century standards?

Well there are quite a few, most people have probably heard the story about the collapsing bridge, right? I plan to create a commission that will study which infrastructure projects are feasible. We should take a look at port improvements, freight rail improvements/expansion, and finally renovations of existing systems. This will include building a railroad from Alaska to continental US(via Yukon) and a tunnel under Bering strait. Also we should consider creating a high speed rail network, with a hub in Clevland, OH, that would connect Midwest and Northeast, and allow well over half of us citizens to travel to half of urban centers in one day. Other smaller segments would be considered to built in Florida, California PNW and Texas. My main concern with this is that it will be a project that will end-up subsidizing the rich.
I also want to replicate a nationwide urban growth boundary like in Oregon, to make it easier for municipalities to maintain services, and preserve rural land.

[LastVoter]

The election is over so I willno longer be asking questions, though what other people choose to do is up to them.

Atlasia has already created an expanisve high speed rail network.

Liberal Senate candidate Franzl initially got it started, and I, as a Senator, greatly expanded upon it.

I don't think this involves Cleveland, OH as a hub, that will require additional expansion.