Quote7:44 am ET
Jul 24, 2014 2016
Rand Paul Veers Off Party Line on Sentencing, Voting Rights

By  BETH REINHARD

Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul's resistance to military intervention abroad is likely to be viewed as his biggest break from Republican tradition if he seeks his party's nomination in 2016.

But Mr. Paul is also challenging his own party by increasingly embracing issues dear to the African-American voters who have overwhelmingly rejected the GOP for decades.

Mr. Paul is championing the restoration of voting rights to felons, wants to ease sentencing of nonviolent drug offenders and says he disagrees with Republican-led efforts in several states to curtail early voting and require voters to show photo ID at the polls.

"I want to be known as a Republican who got more people to vote, not less," Mr. Paul said in an interview.

Mr. Paul is sponsoring a bill that would allow non-violent felons to regain their voting rights after serving time. Mr. Paul also wants to downgrade some non-violent drug crimes from felonies to misdemeanors to make it easier for those offenders to get jobs when they get out of jail. Minorities, he said, are disproportionately charged with drug crimes.

"The biggest impediment to both voting and getting a job is having a criminal record," Mr. Paul said. "I've always felt like the war on drugs had gotten out of control, and as I've met different people in our cities I've become more aware there's a racial element to the war on drugs."

At a Senate hearing earlier this week on his bill, Mr. Paul said some drug offenders "are people who just made youthful mistakes."

<<snip>>

Some of Mr. Paul's potential rivals in 2016, including Texas Gov. Rick Perry and New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, have also talked about easing sentences on drug offenders and emphasizing treatment programs. But on the issues of allowing felons to vote again and requiring voters to show ID at the polls, Mr. Paul has little company among potential 2016 candidates. Florida Sen. Marco Rubio and former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush have both defended the state's rules stripping felons of their right to vote without a pardon from the governor, while Govs. Perry and Scott Walker of Wisconsin have backed voter ID laws.

Correction: Mr. Paul is sponsoring a bill that would allow non-violent felons to regain their voting rights after serving time. The initial version of this post incorrectly said Democratic Sen. Cory Booker was also a sponsor.

http://blogs.wsj.com/washwire/2014/07/24/rand-paul-veers-off-party-line-on-sentencing-voting-rights/?mod=WSJ_hppMIDDLENexttoWhatsNewsSecond

Articles quoting Paul have led me astray before.  I'm going to take the time to read his comments first.

He once was sort of OK for me, but now he's gone way too crazy, at least IMHO.

Quote from: CG6468 on July 25, 2014, 08:47:27 AM
He once was sort of OK for me, but now he's gone way too crazy, at least IMHO.

Paul isn't the problem:
http://www.heritageactionscorecard.com/members/member/P000603