SAN LUIS VALLEY — On the November ballot, voters will be asked to weigh in on eight topics that range from school choice to a ban on hunting mountain lions.
In an effort to provide information to voters about how their votes will align or not align with the candidates, the Valley Courier presented these same questions to the two candidates running for the state legislature. Today will be the responses of the two candidates for the Colorado Senate District 6. On Friday, Sept. 27, candidate responses from the House of Representatives District 62 were in the Courier.
The questions that appear under each candidate’s name are abbreviated versions of the actual question that will appear on the ballot. These are the questions in their entirety. Question no. 9 does not appear on the ballot and was posed by the Valley Courier.
Senator Cleave Simpson, incumbent and Republican candidate for Colorado Senate District 6
In cases where prosecutors have a strong case, should defendants charged with first degree murder be denied bail?
"I do believe the judge in a first degree murder case should be able to deny bail, at their discretion, depending on the circumstances."
Should the same-sex marriage ban be removed from the state constitution?
"Yes, to align with Supreme Court rulings and to reflect societal standards."
Should access to legal abortion be enshrined in the state constitution?
"No, this issue should continue to be debatable in the General Assembly. I am hopeful we can get beyond the binary conversation on the extremes of this issue, it is so much more nuanced. I continue to advocate to provide assistance, support and alternatives for women and families making such a difficult life decision."
Should the right to school choice be included in the state constitution?
"Yes, I believe in school choice but also support our public school system and will continue to advocate for its success."
Should there be a ban on sport hunting of big cats, including mountain lions, bobcats and lynx?
"No, wildlife management needs to be left to the professionals at Colorado Parks and Wildlife. 'Sport hunting or trophy hunting' of cats is already illegal and lynx are already a protected species."
Should eligibility for parole when convicted of a violent crime be increased from 75% to 85% of sentence? "Yes, I think the incremental increase in time served prior to parole eligibility is warranted. We need to be focusing more on holding criminals more accountable for their actions."
Should there be a new excise tax of 6.5% on the sale of guns and ammunition sales, impacting gun manufacturers, gun vendors and businesses that sell ammunition?
"No, burdening law-abiding citizens with more taxes to assist with important victim services is not good policy. Particularly now with such a high cost of living in Colorado."
Do you believe that elections in Colorado are safe and secure?
"Yes, but the system is not perfect. We should continue to strengthen confidence in the system and make it harder to cheat."
If elected, what are your top two or three priorities?
"1. Demand more fiscal responsibility from the general assembly and assure we abide by our constitutional funding requirements as well as our statutory requirements to maintain a 15% reserve. We FINALLY eliminated the budget stabilization factor and put forward a budget this year to fulfill our constitutional requirement on funding K-12 education."
