Political Bio of the Week

The Presidential Race has been interesting lately. Recently we had both the Democratic debate as well as the Republican debate. I can honestly say I have not heard, nor read the transcripts as of yet. What I've heard is less than interesting from callers on CSPAN. Most have commented that there was no true views given by the candidates and there were too many candidates to actually hold a debate. So I thought I would take this time to bring in two of the very much unknown candidates that turned some heads with good ideas, but just don't have the money or resources to get their name out there. Next week : Ron Paul, Republican Presidential Candidate

GRAVEL, Maurice Robert (Mike), a Senator from Alaska; born in Springfield, Hampden County, Mass., May 13, 1930; attended private schools; graduated, Columbia University 1956; member of the United States Army, Counter Intelligence Corps 1951-1954; member, Alaska house of representatives 1962-1966, elected speaker in 1965; author; engaged in real estate development in Anchorage and Kenai; elected as a Democrat to the United States Senate in 1968; reelected in 1974, and served from January 3, 1969, to January 2, 1981; unsuccessful candidate for renomination in 1980; is a resident of Arlington, Va.

There is not a whole lot of info on Mike Gravel from ontheissues.org, but I used what I could...

Favors

Universal Healthcare

Privatizing Social Security

School Voucher Program

National Sales Tax to replace IRS and Income Tax

Cutting the 10,000 Nuclear Weapons to a couple hundred

Pulling out of Iraq immediately

Kyoto Protocol

Passing immediate legislation to curb America's carbon footprint

Gun Ownership, but with registration and training

Democratic government where people vote for laws

Illegal Immigration because of bad NAFTA laws, would change trade agreement

Same-sex marriage

Increasing hate crime legislation

Prison/Drug reform

Opposes

War in Iraq

Income Tax and IRS

Republican form of government where the electoral college and representatives vote on laws