Candidate Questionnaire

Candidate Questionnaire

Thank you for your interest in seeking LVDSA’s endorsement. To apply for our chapter’s endorsement, please submit this Google Form. Submission of this questionnaire will act as your formal application for LVDSA’s endorsement and will start your endorsement process. Once you have submitted the questionnaire and the names of the required five sponsors, chapter members will be notified of your application. All answers to this questionnaire, except for questions regarding personal contact info, will be made public.

This form is the Standard Questionnaire that all candidates must fill out. Answers to all questions are required. There is an explanation section for every yes/no question, but explanations are optional. If you choose to provide an explanation, please keep your response to under 150 words.

Additionally, you may be subject to further vetting from a chapter working group, caucus, or section, which is optional, but strongly encouraged. This additional vetting may include office-specific questionnaires, conference call interviews, and in-person meetings.

Once you have submitted your Questionnaire, the Electoral Working Group of LVDSA will follow up with you on next steps.

For any questions, comments, or concerns, please contact lasvegasdsa@gmail.com.

General

Intro

  • Campaign Email:
  • Candidate Name:
  • Campaign Contact Phone:
  • Campaign Twitter Handle:
  • What office are you seeking?
  • Party Affiliation:
  • Current Occupation (if applicable):

Background

  • Will you publicly identify as a democratic socialist in your campaign? Y/N
    • What does democratic socialism mean to you?
  • Are you a member of DSA? Y/N
    • If so, when did you join?
  • Have you had any affiliation with law enforcement, criminal prosecution, or prisons (including but not limited to LVMPD, County Sheriff, ICE, Homeland Security, Etc.)? Y/N
    • If so, please elaborate on the affiliation.
  • How long have you lived in your district? If you do not live in the district you’re running in or have recently moved there, please explain why you’re running in this district.
  • Why are you seeking this office?
  • What are you hoping to gain from our endorsement?

Campaign

  • What are your top 3 priorities?
  • What endorsements have you received so far?
  • What do you see as your path to victory?
  • Will you pledge not to take any campaign contributions from for-profit corporations or for-profit corporate PACs? Y/N
    • If not, please explain.
  • Will you pledge not to take any campaign contributions from real estate developers and corporate lobbyists? Y/N
    • If not, please explain.
  • Is your campaign unionized or will you pledge to accept unionization efforts by your staff? Y/N

Community

    • If DSA does not endorse you, how will you relate to DSA?
    • Are you challenging an incumbent, an incumbent yourself, or are you running for an open seat?
      • If challenging an incumbent: How would you be an improvement over the current incumbent?
  • If an incumbent: How will your continued incumbency be a benefit to the community?
  • How will your leadership be accountable to your constituents?
  • How will your candidacy contribute to building long-term power for the working class?
  • What local groups and issues have you been involved in organizing with?
  • What organizations do you look to for guidance and leadership on issues?
  • How would you approach community engagement when in office?

Actions If Elected

  • How will you be accountable to our members once you are in office?
  • Do you commit to working in collaboration with other DSA elected officials? Y/N
  • How would democratic socialist principles guide how you would act as an elected official?
  • What actions will you take to rectify the legacy of white supremacy and dismantle the structures which enable it?

Housing

  • What actions would you take to increase affordable housing?
  • How would you support the expansion of public housing?
  • Do you support the implementation of rent control policies? Y/N
  • Do you oppose the use or sale of public land for private development? Y/N
  • Do you support implementing a Tenant Opportunity to Purchase policy? Y/N
  • Do you support implementing the following tenant protections?
    • Just cause requirement for evictions? Y/N
    • Right to counsel for evictions? Y/N
  • Do you oppose the evictions of homeless encampments? Y/N
  • Would you oppose using city resources and police to sweep encampments? Y/N
  • What would your plan be to support houseless individuals in encampments?
  • How will you respond to the wave of evictions due to COVID-19, specifically when the rent moratorium expires?
  • Do you believe guaranteed housing is a human right? Y/N

Police & Public Safety

  • What is your vision for community safety?
  • Is there any situation in which you would vote to increase police funding? Y/N
  • Do you support efforts to demilitarize and disarm the police department? Y/N
  • Do you support an end to mass incarceration and abolishing for-profit prisons? Y/N
  • Under what circumstances would you support a national guard deployment in Las Vegas/Nevada?
  • Would you oppose allowing local law enforcement officers to suppress protests, both locally or in response to another jurisdiction’s request? Y/N
  • Do you commit to rejecting any political endorsement or campaign contributions by labor groups whose mission is primarily to organize and represent police officers? Y/N
  • Do you support decriminalization and expungement of conviction records related to marijuana / other drugs? Y/N
  • Many local police departments participate in training with Israeli military and/or police in what opponents of such programs call the “Deadly Exchange,” furthering practices of surveillance, militarization and racist violence and policing. Would you support ending these police exchanges? Y/N

Healthcare

  • Do you support universal single-payer healthcare programs like Medicare for All? Y/N
  • Do you support women’s rights to reproductive health care, including abortion? Y/N
  • How would you guarantee poor and working class women have access to reproductive care?
  • Would you support creating safe injection sites? Y/N
  • What policies would you pursue to support the expansion of public health infrastructure?

Economic Justice & Worker’s Rights

  • What would your relationship be to labor groups, and what actions would you take to support labor organizing?
  • Do you support the following minimum wage policies:
    • Raising the minimum wage to $15 an hour? Y/N
    • Indexing the minimum wage to inflation or cost of living? Y/N
    • Raising the tipped minimum wage to match the standard minimum wage? Y/N
  • Do you oppose tax giveaways or publicly-funded incentives to corporations such as the ones given to Amazon and others? Y/N
  • Will you support increasing taxes on the wealthiest residents of your jurisdiction to pay for some of the programs you feel strongly about?  Y/N
  • Do you support the unconditional right of workers to organize unions and card check? Y/N
  • Do you oppose so-called Right-to-Work legislation? Y/N
  • What other measures do you think are needed and will fight for to make the labor market fairer such as fair scheduling laws, parental leave, county contracts with abusive employers, employee misclassification (e.g., Uber drivers and other employees treated as independent contractors)?
  • How would you support and develop policies to increase worker ownership and control of industries?
  • Do you recognize sex work as work and support the decriminalization of sex work? Y/N
    • What specific proposals for the protection of sex workers’ rights do you support?

Environmental Justice & Climate Change

  • Will you support all efforts to reach a just transition to 100% carbon-neutral energy by 2035 at the latest and zero emissions in all economic sectors as soon as possible? Y/N
  • Would you support public ownership of gas and electric utilities? Y/N
  • Do you oppose the construction of new fossil fuel pipelines? Y/N
  • Do you support increasing taxes on Nevada’s mining industry? Y/N
  • How would you support sustainability in both private development and public works programs?
  • Do you support climate mitigation requirements for new housing developments? Y/N
  • What steps would you take to prepare your jurisdiction for the climate crisis and ensure equity in that process?
  • How would you advance transportation justice?
  • Do you support creating a fare-free program for public transportation? Y/N

Childcare & Education

  • Do you oppose privatization of public school services and the expansion of charter schools? Y/N
  • Do you support universal and free pre-school? Y/N
  • Do you support paid family leave? Y/N
  • What policies would you support to enable access to childcare services?
  • Do you support a prohibition on exclusionary school discipline (i.e., suspensions and expulsions)? Y/N
  • Will you support free education at community college and/or 4-year public universities? Y/N
  • Do you support student loan debt-forgiveness programs? Y/N

Immigration

  • Do you support classifying and publicly announcing your jurisdiction as a sanctuary for undocumented immigrants? Y/N
  • Do you support a path to citizenship and an end to illegalization of people based on immigration status? Y/N
  • Will you pledge to reject endorsements and funding from organizations involved in immigration enforcement and incarceration? Y/N
  • Do you support the unconditional abolition of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency (ICE)? Y/N

Human Rights & Internationalism

  • Do you support the repeal of the 2001 Authorization for Use of Military Force (AUMF)? Y/N
  • In the past decade, several states, counties, and municipalities have sought to pass legislation that would penalize companies–or even individuals–for participating in the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement against Israel. Regardless of your own position on BDS, would you oppose this kind of legislation and seek to repeal it in jurisdictions where it already exists? Y/N
  • Do you support the Palestinian call for Boycott, Divest, and Sanctions (BDS) to pressure Israel until it complies with international law by ending the occupation, instituting equal rights for its Palestinian citizens and respecting Palestinian refugees’ right to return? Y/N