Voter's Edge California Voter Guide
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League of Women Voters of California Education Fund
Tuesday June 5, 2018 — California Primary Election
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United States

United States SenateCandidate for Senator

Photo of John "Jack" Crew

John "Jack" Crew

Bus Driver
93,702 votes (1.4%)
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My Top 3 Priorities

  • Restore God-given right to life for all human beings from conception until natural death.
  • Defend Constitutionally guaranteed rights that are under attack, including free speech, liberty of conscience, and right to keep and bear arms.
  • Support balanced budget amendment, restore fiscal accountability, foster strong economic opportunities through deregulation.

Experience

Experience

Profession:Bus Driver
bus driver / transportation coordinator, Forest Lake Christian School, Auburn CA (2006–current)
public transit bus driver, County of Nevada, Nevada City CA (2006–current)
public transit bus driver, First Transit Inc., Kankakee IL (2004–2006)
public transit bus driver, First Transit Inc., Fairfax & Prince William Counties VA (2002–2004)
city letter carrier, U.S. Postal Service, Falls Church VA (1994–2002)

Education

U.S. Army Wheeled Vehicle Operator School certificate, tractor-trailer operation (1997)
U.S. Army Ordnance Officer Basic Course certificate, U.S. Army ordnance / maintenance system (1992)
Pennsylvania Army National Guard Officer Candidate School certificate, Army officer training (1990)
Valley Forge Christian College teaching (1985)
U.S. Navy Storekeeper Class "A" School certificate, U.S. Navy supply system (1978)

Community Activities

Royal Rangers assistant, Christ Chapel, Woodbridge VA (1994–1996)
Sunday school teacher, Grace Assembly of God, Spring City PA (1983–1984)
soccer & basketball coach, Tidewater Christian Academy, Norfolk VA (1981–1981)
soccer coach, Boys Club, Norfolk VA (1980–1980)

Biography

I'm 58 years old. I was born and raised in Pennsylvania, and have lived in Virginia, Illinois, and California. My wife, Rodli, and I have been married for 37 years. We have six children and six grandchildren. I'm a veteran of the Navy and of the Army National Guard. My civilian work experience includes: warehouse worker, private security guard, public library assistant, delivery driver, postal service letter carrier, and bus driver. I have been a bus driver for 16 years and a California resident for 12 years.

I have set the following goals to help me become better qualified to be a candidate for United States Senate:

1) Memorize the United States Constitution.

2) Follow the Congressional Record, especially the Senate Record.

3) Familiarize myself with the United States Senate Rules of Order.

4) Communicate effectively and respond compassionately to the needs and concerns of the people of California.

Questions & Answers

Questions from League of Women Voters of California Education Fund (5)

What financing method(s) would you support to repair or improve roads, rails, ports, airports, the electrical grid and other infrastructure in the U.S.?
Answer from John "Jack" Crew:

Remove programs from the Highway Trust Fund that are not federal in nature or fail to reduce congestion, enhance mobility, or improve safety in cost-effective ways.

Reform the federal role in transit funding. Phase out the federal transit program and its funding over a five-year period, thus refocusing the Highway Trust Fund on its core mission and restoring the integrity of the “user pays, user benefits” model.

Reform the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) to streamline the environmental review process and accelerate transportation and infrastructure projects, generating cost savings.

Identify and appropriately address federal barriers to the use of public-private partnership (PPP or P3) agreements. Public-private partnerships can increase efficiency, lower taxpayer risk, and spur private investment in infrastructure projects.

Limit Highway Trust Fund spending to available revenue. Instead of hiking taxes to fund new federal spending, Congress should eliminate diversions out of the HTF to focus existing funding on the core mission of the federal highway program. 

Defund the Obama Administration’s livability program, which is meant to “coerce people out of their cars,” according to former Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood. Livability programs are politically driven and mark federal government over-reach into the lives of citizens.

What programs or legislation, if any, would you support to help Americans of all ages secure affordable health care?
Answer from John "Jack" Crew:

Medicaid is an existing government-sponsored health care system that provides a right to health care for low-income people. Medicare is an existing government-sponsored health care system that provides health care for senior citizens.

Universal government-sponsored health care is neither economically feasible nor ethically sound. I agree with what Ronald Reagan said: "one of the traditional methods of imposing statism or socialism on a people has been by way of medicine," and once socialized medicine is instituted, "behind it will come other federal programs that will invade every area of freedom."

In the United Kingdom, where universal government-sponsored health care has been instituted, the right of parents to determine whether their own child will be allowed to live or die has already been taken away in the infamous cases of Charlie Gard and Alfie Evans. Such atrocities must never be allowed to occur here.

 

 

Describe an immigration policy that you would support if presented to the Senate.
Answer from John "Jack" Crew:

I supported President Trump’s immigration policy that was rejected by the Senate in February, because it strengthened border security, dealt compassionately with illegal immigrants brought to this country as children, ended extended-family chain migration by limiting family sponsorships to spouses and minor children, and eliminated the Visa Lottery which is a national security threat. I believe that further compromise on illegal immigration will only perpetuate the crisis we are facing. I believe that any unnecessarily harsh measures that must be used to end our illegal immigration crisis must be blamed on Senators who are unwilling to accept this sound and reasonable immigration policy.

Question 4

What programs or legislation would you support to meet the water needs of Californians and the federal water project infrastructure in California?

No answer provided.
Question 5

According to a "Civility In America” survey, 75% of Americans believe that the U.S. has a major civility problem. If you are elected what will do to address this?

No answer provided.

Who gave money to this candidate?

Contributions

More information about contributions

Source: MapLight analysis of data from the Federal Election Commission.

Political Beliefs

Political Philosophy

I will promote conservative public policies based on the principles of free enterprise, limited government, individual freedom, traditional American values, and a strong national defense. I will work to promote and pass a Constitutional amendment acknowledging that human life begins at conception, thus restoring the God-given right to life for every human being in our nation. I will give this matter the highest priority, and encourage every other elected official to do the same until it comes to pass.

Position Papers

Abortion

Summary

Abortion-on-demand is a crime against humanity that must be ended.

In the last 45 years over 60 million innocent, defenseless human beings who have no ability to speak for themselves have been slaughtered in this country. This is a crime against humanity. This is an atrocity of the same magnitude as the American slave trade or the Nazi holocaust. Thousands more will be killed today, and tomorrow, and every day until we put a stop to it.

If there’s no Creator who has given us unalienable rights as human beings, and if there’s no Judge to Whom we’re ultimately accountable for our actions as individuals and as nations, then we have no real grounds for defending the right to life or any other human right. But if there is such a Creator and Judge, I believe we ought to be trembling right now because of the just punishment that awaits our nation if we don’t rise up and put an end to this atrocity that has already saturated our land with the blood of the innocents.

To bring an end to this slaughter a law must be passed defining that human life begins when human parents conceive human offspring. To permanently protect the innocent and defenseless from future threats of slaughter there must be an amendment to the U.S. Constitution making the same definition.

I recommend that every American who desires to protect these innocent and defenseless victims who cannot speak for themselves should write, e-mail, and call their Senators and Representatives in Washington respectfully but firmly demanding an end to the slaughter. Here's a suggested letter:
"Dear Senator or Congressman _______ :
Please end the destruction of innocent, defenseless human beings that is taking place in this country. Please sponsor legislation defining that human life begins at conception. Thank you."
You can find the contact information for your U.S. Senators and Representative at this link: https://www.usa.gov/elected-officials.

"Open your mouth for the mute, in the cause of all who are appointed to destruction." (Proverbs 31:8)
"Rescue those who are being led away to death! Indeed, hold back those who are staggering to the slaughter! (Proverbs 24:11)

Many women experiencing a crisis pregnancy have been pressured to have an abortion. If you are being pressured to have an abortion, please consider the following link for counseling and assistance: 
http://www.theunchoice.com/pregnancyhelp.htm.
If you have already had an abortion and are suffering post-abortion trauma, please consider the following link for help and healing:
http://afterabortion.org/help-healing/.

Thank you and God bless you.

Economic Policy

Summary

The free-market economy that has made our nation thrive must be preserved and strengthened.

One of the stated purposes of the United States Constitution is to “promote the general welfare.” A key aspect of promoting the general welfare of the American people must be to enact government economic policies that will enable us to prosper. From the beginning of our nation, we have had a free-market economy. According to one definition, a free market is an idealized system in which the prices for goods and services are determined by the open market and consumers, in which the laws and forces of supply and demand are free from any intervention by a government, price-setting monopoly, or other authority.

I believe the following discerning statements quoted from Economics in One Lesson, by Henry Hazlitt [pages 191-211] are instructive for good government economic policy.

“Economics is the science of tracing the effects of some proposed or existing policy not only on some special interest in the short run, but on the general interest in the long run.”
“…when we study the effects of various proposals, not merely on special groups in the short run, but on all groups in the long run, the conclusions we arrive at usually correspond with those of unsophisticated common sense.”
“There is no more certain way to deter employment than to harass and penalize employers. There is no more certain way to keep wages low than to destroy every incentive to investment in new and more efficient machines and equipment.”
“…[increased] taxation has not brought revenues to keep pace with ever more reckless government spending and schemes for redistributing wealth. The result has been to bring chronic and growing government budget deficits, and therefore chronic and mounting inflation.”
“[Many] politicians continue to ignore the necessity of profits,…to denounce unusual profits anywhere, to tax them excessively, and sometimes even to deplore the very existence of profits.”
“More and more people are becoming aware that government has nothing to give them without first taking it away from somebody else—or from themselves.”
“There is a real promise that public policy may be reversed before the damage from existing measures and trends has become irreparable.”

I believe that our government has an essential responsibility of making provision for the poor. Such provision must be made, however, not by penalizing productivity and profits, but by encouraging and rewarding them. Government economic policies that enable individuals, businesses, and corporations to thrive and prosper will promote national wealth and increase the resources from which the poor may be provided, both through private charity programs and public welfare programs. The wealth from which the poor will be provided must be produced—it does not appear out of thin air. Government cannot produce wealth—it can only manage wealth with which it is entrusted through tax revenues.

If I am elected to the United States Senate, I will promote and vote for economic policies that give incentives for productivity and profits, because I believe this is the most effective way to fulfill the Constitutional mandate to “promote the general welfare.” There will no doubt always be some, both rich and poor, who abuse the system by taking as much as they can while giving as little as possible. But this can never be remedied by punishing the vast majority of honorable citizens through economic policies that hinder the general welfare rather than promoting it.

Foundation of Liberty

Summary

Our American liberties are the result of the faith of our fathers.

I believe it is a mistaken and dangerous notion that our American liberties can rest on any other than a moral foundation. This was the belief of the founders of our nation.
Two days after the opening of the First Continental Congress in 1774, they began the practice of beginning each day’s session with prayer, a practice that carried over to the United States Congress and has continued to this day. Here is the first prayer of the Continental Congress (offered by Reverend Jacob Duché, Rector of Christ Church of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania):
“O Lord, our Heavenly Father, high and mighty King of kings and Lord of lords: who dost from thy throne behold all the dwellers upon earth and reignest with power supreme and uncontrolled over all kingdoms, empires and governments; look down in mercy, we beseech thee, upon these our American states, who have fled to thee from the rod of the oppressor and thrown themselves upon thy gracious protection, desiring henceforth to be dependent only on thee.
To thee have they appealed for the righteousness of their cause; to thee do they now look up, for that countenance and support which thou alone canst give. Take them, therefore, Heavenly Father, under thy nurturing care; give them wisdom in council, valor in the field. Defeat the malicious designs of our cruel adversaries; convince them of the unrighteousness of their cause; and if they persist in their sanguinary purposes, O let the voice of thy unerring justice sounding in their hearts constrain them to drop the weapons of war from their unnerved hands in the day of battle!
Be thou present, O God of wisdom, and direct the counsels of this honorable assembly; enable them to settle things on the best and surest foundation, that the scene of blood may be speedily closed; that harmony and peace may effectually be restored, and truth and justice, religion and piety prevail and flourish amongst thy people. Preserve the health of their bodies and the vigor of their minds; shower down upon them and the millions they represent such temporal blessings as thou seest expedient for them in this world, and crown them with everlasting glory in the world to come. All this we ask in the name and through the merits of Jesus Christ thy son, our Savior. Amen.”
The Declaration of Independence, signed by delegates to the Second Continental Congress in 1776, begins with these words:
“When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.--That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed…”
and ends with these words:
“We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these United Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States… And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.”
The Constitution of the United States was signed by delegates to the Constitutional Convention in 1787. 
Article 6 prohibits religious discrimination in the qualification for any public office:
“… no religious Test shall ever be required as a Qualification to any Office or public Trust under the United States.”
Article 7 acknowledges that our civil calendar is dated from the birth of Jesus Christ:
“Done in Convention by the Unanimous Consent of the States present the Seventeenth Day of September in the Year of our Lord one thousand seven hundred and Eighty seven…”
The First Amendment to the Constitution places two specific restrictions on Congress in regard to religious liberty:
“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof…”
There was a compelling reason why the people demanded a Bill of Rights to be added to the Constitution. The liberties addressed in these first ten amendments had been denied to them or their ancestors over the course of the preceding centuries. And there was a very specific reason why the First Amendment begins with the issue of religious liberty. Many of the inhabitants of the colonies, or their ancestors, had fled to America to escape religious persecution. Many in England (and other countries) had been imprisoned and even put to death simply because they belonged to the “wrong” church or worshiped in a manner that was not approved by the state. 
The intent of the founding fathers in regard to religious liberty, as clearly seen in the First Amendment, was to prevent the state from dictating compulsory religious observance, and to protect the free exercise of religion. The founders of our nation were strongly against religious persecution and religious discrimination. But they were strongly for religion and morality.
Here are a few representative statements of the founders:
John Adams: “Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.”
George Washington: “Of all the dispositions and habits which lead to political prosperity, religion and morality are indispensable supports. In vain would that man claim the tribute of patriotism who should labor to subvert these great pillars of human happiness, these firmest props of the duties of men and citizens.”
Benjamin Franklin: “Only a virtuous people are capable of freedom. As nations become corrupt and vicious, they have more need of masters.”
Samuel Adams: “While the people are virtuous they cannot be subdued, but when once they lose their virtue, they will be ready to surrender their liberties.” 
Our founding fathers believed in a higher law to which men and nations are accountable. They appealed to the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God. They held certain truths to be self-evident; in particular, that all men are created equal, and that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights. They appealed to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of their intentions. And they proceeded with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence to secure our cherished liberties. It befits us to acknowledge and appreciate the faith and courage of our fathers that have secured for us these liberties.
George Washington proclaimed: “…it is the duty of all Nations to acknowledge the providence of Almighty God, to obey his will, to be grateful for his benefits, and humbly to implore his protection and favor…”
Our American liberties rest on the God who alone has the unchallenged authority to grant them. If there is a living God who is our Creator and Judge, and we choose not to acknowledge Him or give thanks, then we will proceed at our own peril to build on a false foundation that cannot sustain the liberties with which we have been entrusted.

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