Web Profile: Christopher Brown

I'm making it a goal to read as much as I can on every local candidate's campaign website and pass along useful summaries to you. There's no method to my madness, but I thought I'd begin in numerical order with the House.

So I begin with the Democratic candidate in District #134 . . . Christopher Brown . . .

http://electchristopherbrown.com

37-year-old Christopher Brown, a 9-year resident of Republic, will challenge one of the 3 Republicans running for the seat currently held by Rep. Jim Viebrock.

Brown describes himself as a fiscal conservative who is against embryonic stem cell research and believes life begins at conception. Yes, he's running as a Democrat.

He spends a good amount of time on a host of big issues, like health care, the MOHELA deal and the corrections system. But unfortunately, it doesn't look like Brown used spell check.

Right smack dab on his homepage, he asks, "Are You A UnDecieded Voter?" The more I read, the more I found mistakes. Hey, I understand that typos happen to the best of us, but too many, and it may hurt your credibility. I counted at least a half dozen, including "Mojority," "cadidate," and "beleive."

On the issues, Brown is against the Governor's failed MOHELA sell-off. "Reducing the availability of low cost student loans is not the way to get the money," Brown writes.

Brown is for reforming the tax code, breaking it down to four effective rates, from 2% to 25%. He spends a good amount of time talking about health care for all and Canada's system, without going so far as to explicitly endorse it. He also says our prison system is broken and advocates rehabilitation facilities as the remedy.

The most eye-popping position Brown takes on his site is the decriminalization of marijuana. I was tempted to make that the lead line of this piece (boy it was tough!), but I restrained myself in fairness, and to reward those who made it to the end of this. Brown proposes decriminalizing possession of 1 ounce of weed or less. He wants possession offenses basically reduced to a parking ticket and says law enforcement should place more emphasis on finding the dealers.