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Harris vs. Kratovil: Which 1st District Congressional Candidate's Viewpoints Are Most Similar to Yours?

By Tamra Tomlinson
Maryland Newsline
Friday, May 2, 2008

State Sen. Andy Harris, a Republican, is facing Queen Anne's State's Attorney Frank Kratovil, a Democrat, in the race for Maryland's 1st District seat in Congress. Take our quiz to find out how well your views align with those of the candidates. Click the button next to the response that best matches yours. Then, click the "get score" button at the end to see what percent of your answers agree with each of the candidate's.


    1. What (if any) role should the government play in assisting people in danger of losing their homes because of their inability to make the payments on their adjustable-rate mortgages?
Funds should be made available to help homeowners avoid forclosure. Any assistance should be focused on helping homeowners who were legitimately misled and became victims of predatory lending, not bailing out investors who gambled and lost. Funds should be made available to help homeowners avoid forclosure. The government shouldn’t get involved in a private contract by  picking winners and losers. Investing tax dollars to assist people who made poor mortgage decisions is not the best use of that money. The best role for government is to ensure that there is full disclosure from the lender and borrower.

    2. How should the federal government address the problem of illegal immigration?
The immigration process should be streamlined so that employers who need a particular workforce – for seasonal agricultural work, for example – can quickly get the workers they need. If employers get the opportunity to find workers legally, and don’t, there should be severe sanctions. The government should increase resources for the agencies that deal with illegal immigrants who commit crimes so that they’re quickly tried and deported, not allowed to sit in local detention centers.

 		 The first priority should be to secure the border, whether that requires building a fence, increasing border security or tightening control at the entry points. The government should remove the incentive for illegal immigration by making it hard to find work in this country without proper documentation and remove the incentive to hire illegal workers by enforcing the existing labor laws. A system of identification that can’t be forged, like biometric identification (retinal and fingerprint scans), should be implemented for foreign workers, so that employers can know who is here legally.

    3. How would you evaluate the progress in the war in Iraq? Should the U.S. reduce its presence there? What should be changed?
Any apparent improvements in the security situation in Iraq will last only as long as the surge lasts. The decrease in violence doesn’t necessarily demonstrate real progress. We should look for guidance from the best, most neutral sources, like the recommendations of the Iraq study group. The U.S. government hasn’t used its diplomatic powers to the best advantage. We should work with Syria, Jordan and Turkey to address their concerns about refugees and security and in exchange get their assistance with Iraq. The ideal situation would be one in which we decrease our troop levels and participate in an international force. We could increase support for our mission through diplomatic efforts and withdraw our troops as assistance from other countries increases.

 		 The surge is working, and the counterinsurgency efforts are working. Soon they will allow a gradual taking over of security measures by an Iraqi army. Then the United States will be able begin to draw down its forces in Iraq.

    4. What specific steps should be taken to address cost and accessibility to health care?
As citizens of a civilized nation, everyone has a right to be insured. Prices should be set on a sliding scale based on ability to pay. Increasing the pool of people who are insured will reduce the costs for each individual. We should increase the number of people who are eligible to be covered under Medicare, Medicaid and health insurance programs for children.  We should move to a system in which health insurance is “owned” by an individual, and portable from employer to employer. Health insurance should be made more affordable by removing as many mandatory benefits as possible, allowing for the creation of basic policies that only cover care for catastrophic injuries or illnesses.
 

    5. Crude oil prices are now more than $110 per barrel. What changes will be necessary in our policies on energy sources and use?
We should first increase the efficiency in our current technology (better fuel efficiency for cars, more energy-efficient appliances, establish building codes requiring energy-efficient and conservation-oriented building). Then, we have to make a commitment to shift from those technologies to new ones. Some of the money now invested in exploration for oil and gas should be shifted to funding development of alternative and hybrid vehicles and renewable energy sources We need the kind of innovation and commitment we had when we were sending men to the moon. Only by increasing supply or reducing demand can we get energy prices down. We have to decrease our dependance on foreign oil by exploring for energy within the U.S. wherever we can and decreasing our dependance on fossil fuels by pursuing a nuclear energy policy.

    6. What would you do in Congress to protect and restore the health of coastal waterways like the Chesapeake Bay?
Protection and restoration of the bay is a regional issue. Additional money should be allocated for buffers and planting cover crops to fight run-off from erosion. It’s also important to fight for Maryland’s fair share of the federal farm bill, to help in funding efforts to protect the bay. We should focus funding on areas most likely to impact waterways, no more “first-come, first-served.” It’s important to make sure that all the states involved in the degradation of the bay are contributing to its restoration. The burden for funding clean-up and protection efforts has to be spread out more evenly, involving all the states whose rivers discharge into the bay, rather than just falling on Maryland and Virginia. The agriculture industry, environmental groups, watermen, and cities that discharge into the bay all have to have a seat at the table and contribute to the solutions.




Your match with Frank Kratovil is:
Your match with Andy Harris is:


Source: Interviews with each of the candidates.

Special Report Main Page: Elections '08

Copyright © 2008 University of Maryland Philip Merrill College of Journalism

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