2022 Lincoln County Dems Platform

Lincoln County Wyoming
Lincoln County Democratic Party:

Education

1. supports the development of high-quality education standards;
2. recognizes parents as the first educators and very important to student education;
3. urges each community to provide the strongest possible support for quality public education;
4. encourages local school districts to establish a school climate that promotes tolerance, addresses cultural differences, and reinforces the meaning of the freedoms guaranteed in the constitution;
5. supports the establishment of programs to ensure the environment in public schools is free from bullying, hazing, and other forms of intimidation, plus checking backgrounds of all school employees against the registered sex-offender lists;
6. supports full funding of early childhood education;
7. supports honest examination of the role of race and gender in our history

Public Health

1. supports increased funding of community mental health centers and counseling services on a sliding fee scale for those in need;
2. supports increased funding for drug and alcohol education, prevention, and rehabilitation programs and encourages the same services as an alternative to incarceration when appropriate;
3. supports a comprehensive state and/or national health care system including Medicaid expansion and Public Health Services;
4. supports the position that the fundamental right of reproductive choice should be guaranteed; and that a critical component of this right is access to safe, legal, affordable prenatal care, adoption services, and termination of pregnancy regardless of ability to pay;
5. supports the legal purchasing of prescription drugs from foreign countries by U.S. individuals and business consumers;
6. supports the construction of an additional state veterans’ home to provide more geographical coverage;
7. urges state leadership to adhere to professional scientific recommendations for pandemic response

Economy and Labor

1. supports policies that promote an increase in the diversity of Wyoming’s economy, including clean energy development;
2. supports all Wyoming’s families and calls for tax policies that enable them to compete effectively in a global market, including the elimination of the tip credit reduction of the minimum wage earned by service employees in Wyoming;
3. encourages the state to adopt legislation that creates the right for all private and public sector employees in Wyoming to elect to collectively bargain overtime pay, benefits, and working conditions;

4. supports timely increases in the federal and state minimum wage;
5. supports mandatory 2-person crews operating trains for the safety of the public, the railroad infrastructure and corridors, and train crews;
6. encourage Congress to repeal recent tax cuts that favor the wealthiest;
7. supports the adoption of land use planning to preserve the integrity of our community and attract quality businesses and clean industries;

Environment and Infrastructure

1. urges state investment in improvements to Wyoming’s physical and cultural infrastructure to enhance the quality of life for all citizens and to promote environmentally clean economic development, including but not limited to a fully-funded school capital construction, and land preservation and rehabilitation programs; an enhanced worker safety program; additional funding for public radio and television, plus visual, performing, and literary arts;
2. encourages activities to reduce the impacts of climate change and supports the vigorous defense of Wyoming’s air and water resources;
3. recognizes the unique natural beauty of Wyoming and supports efforts to preserve this priceless heritage and to oppose the transfer of public land to private ownership by sale or any other means, or the takeover of federal lands by the State of Wyoming; supports continued and expanded access to public lands;
4. supports the maintenance and enforcement of Wyoming’s Environmental Quality Act, the Industrial Siting Act, and calls for the regulation of factory farms with significant environmental impact;
5. calls for a moratorium on establishing radioactive waste dumps in Wyoming and opposes large scale nuclear development;
6. calls for the highest possible safety standards when transporting radioactive waste, oil, gas, and all other hazardous materials through the state;
7. supports favorable efforts and tax policies to assist in the development of wind and other forms of alternative energy;

Political Representation

1. calls for the strict enforcement of the provisions regarding conflict of interest as described in the Wyoming State Constitution;
2. urges that open meeting laws be applied to all elected bodies and that such laws include penalties for noncompliance;
3. calls for the prohibition of holding public office while serving in the capacity of lobbyists or government affairs specialists;
4. encourages all levels of government to balance budgets;
5. encourages governmental executive and legislative branches to become responsible for all “trust” money under their control;
6. supports all constitutional efforts to overturn the 2010 Supreme Court ruling in both Citizens United and the McCutcheon cases regarding corporation and union contributions to political campaigns;
7. supports constitutional guarantees of due process for all individuals within the jurisdiction of U. S. states and Territories and individuals in custody of the U.S Military;

h. supports the abolishment of the electoral college, but as long as the institution is in place supports a change to Wyoming’s allocation of Electoral votes to represent the percentage of votes of the top 4 Presidential candidates in the State rather than “winner take all” ;

Voting Rights

1. supports all constitutional efforts to reinstate the intent and provisions of the 1965 Voting Rights Act;
2. supports community efforts to secure and expand voting rights for all citizens;
3. supports unlimited use of vote-by-mail options;
4. opposes any efforts to suppress the right to vote for American citizens even if incarcerated;
5. supports the establishment of multi-party committees to draw political districts that are representative of community recognized geographical bounds;

Gun Safety

1. supports a continually monitored and accessible database for gun purchase background checks, including gun shows and private sales;
2. Establishment of local, state and federal goals, with short and long-term milestones based on statistical analysis, to reduce gun violence and support the development of technical and legislative means to achieve these, while protecting the right to keep and bear arms;

Prison Reform and Law Enforcement

1. Supports reduction of incarceration for nonviolent and victimless crimes;
2. Supports reduction of child incarceration and encourages more funding for rehabilitation programs for youth;
3. opposes the privatization of prisons;
4. support the decriminalization of marijuana possession for personal use;
5. supports eliminating mandatory sentencing guidelines for offenders for non-violent crimes;

Human Rights

1. support the right to live free from violence, slavery, human trafficking or discrimination regardless of sex, nationality, race, gender identity, sexual orientation or religion;
2. supports an individual’s reproductive rights and choices; and opposes government intrusion into such decisions;
3. supports the enfranchisement and protection of LGBTQ+ community, requiring equal protection under the law.

(approved April 14, 2022)