Andrew Harris (R-Md.)

Harris doesn't think either a government insurance plan or a co-op option are the solutions. He promotes tort reform, expanding the availability of high-deductible plans combined with health-savings accounts, denying any new health-care entitlements to illegal immigrants and encouraging electronic medical records.

Pornography in Public Universities

In April 2009, Harris opposed a University of Maryland screening of "Pirates II: Stagnetti's Revenge," a hard-core porn film. He tried unsuccessfully to amend the state budget so that any public university that allowed the screening of a triple-X film would forfeit its state funding. State funding would amount to $424 million in 2010 for the University of Maryland.

Due to Harris's efforts, Maryland's public university system is now poised to become the first in the country with a policy on student displays of pornographic film. The General Assembly passed a resolution telling the university to create a policy by Sep. 1., 2009. That deadline was pushed back to Dec. 1, 2009.

The policy will most likely require that all public screenings of triple-X films be accompanied by educational discussion. "If they come up with a policy that would allow the use of taxpayer money to show pornography for entertainment, I think that's not appropriate, Harris said. He wants the system to prevent university-subsidized (and, subsequently, government-subsidized) displays of pornographic films outside the classroom.

"This is about the use of taxpayer dollars, and the Maryland General Assembly acts every day on issues concerning the use of taxpayer dollars," Harris said. "Just because someone is on a college campus they do not have a right to spend the hard-earned money of Maryland's taxpayers on something as detrimental to our society as hard-core XXX pornography.

Stem-Cell Research

In March 2006, Harris led a filibuster against state Senate bill that would allow Maryland to subsidize both embryonic and stem-cell research. The bill mandated $25 million a year on the science.Harris said stem-cell research is unethical because it involves the destruction of a human embryo.

Gay Marriage

Harris, who championed a constitutional ban on gay marriage, voted against the Medical Decisions Making Act, which established a state registry for gay couples. It was seen as a first step toward legalizing gay marriage in Maryland. Harris strongly supports marriage as only between a man and woman; he voted twice in March 2008 against redefining marriage to include gay couples.

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