There is no voluntary spending limit for U.S. Senate seats, so I can’t use that as an easy way to rule out candidates, however the VoteSmart.org Political Courage Test still applies and thus the Democratic, Republican, and American Independent candidates are tossed for not bothering to state their positions.
The remaining candidates include:
Marsha Feinland (Peace and Freedom) – I find myself agreeing with many of her positions. Though I have a problem with her support for eliminating funding for intelligence operations within the defense budget. When we do successfully stop terrorist plots it’s through the efforts of intelligence operations (evidence). Eliminating all funding for intelligence gathering would most likely actually increase our risk of being attacked (returning airport security checks to pre-9/11/01 levels would be just fine though). She also opposes nuclear energy, which is unfortunate.
Gail Lightfoot (Libertarian) – Sorry, not going to be voting for this one. She supports eliminating all federal funding for agriculture, arts, education, environment, international aid, medical research, scientific research, and welfare. She believes privatizing each of those areas would be better. She does, however support nuclear energy, but lives in a fantasy world where the private sector will build these facilities without government backing or indemnity.
Duane Roberts (Green) – I like the vast majority of his stated positions. Unfortunately, he doesn’t support nuclear power; but I can live with that and the other issues I don’t entirely agree on.
I’ll probably be voting for Roberts.