Bruce Guthrie

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Bruce Guthrie
Image of Bruce Guthrie

Libertarian Party

Elections and appointments
Last election

August 6, 2024

Education

High school

New Trier East High School

Bachelor's

Cornell University, 1987

Graduate

Seattle University, 2008

Personal
Birthplace
Evanston, Ill.
Religion
Atheist
Profession
Teacher
Contact

Campaign website

Personal Facebook

Personal X

Personal LinkedIn

Bruce Guthrie (Libertarian Party) ran for election to the Washington House of Representatives to represent District 21-Position 2. He lost in the primary on August 6, 2024.

Guthrie completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2024. Click here to read the survey answers.

Elections

2024

See also: Washington House of Representatives elections, 2024

General election

General election for Washington House of Representatives District 21-Position 2

Incumbent Lillian Ortiz-Self defeated Kristina Mitchell in the general election for Washington House of Representatives District 21-Position 2 on November 5, 2024.

Candidate
%
Votes
✔
Image of Lillian Ortiz-Self
Lillian Ortiz-Self (D)
 
67.1
 
46,422
Image of Kristina Mitchell
Kristina Mitchell (Conservative Party) Candidate Connection
 
32.6
 
22,579
 Other/Write-in votes
 
0.2
 
156

Incumbents are bolded and underlined. The results have been certified. Source

Total votes: 69,157
Candidate Connection = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
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Nonpartisan primary election

Nonpartisan primary for Washington House of Representatives District 21-Position 2

Incumbent Lillian Ortiz-Self and Kristina Mitchell defeated Bruce Guthrie in the primary for Washington House of Representatives District 21-Position 2 on August 6, 2024.

Candidate
%
Votes
✔
Image of Lillian Ortiz-Self
Lillian Ortiz-Self (D)
 
67.2
 
23,435
✔
Image of Kristina Mitchell
Kristina Mitchell (Conservative Party) Candidate Connection
 
22.4
 
7,806
Image of Bruce Guthrie
Bruce Guthrie (L) Candidate Connection
 
10.2
 
3,555
 Other/Write-in votes
 
0.2
 
86

Incumbents are bolded and underlined. The results have been certified. Source

Total votes: 34,882
Candidate Connection = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey.

Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team.

Campaign finance

Endorsements

Ballotpedia did not identify endorsements for Guthrie in this election.

2016

See also: Washington House of Representatives elections, 2016

Elections for the Washington House of Representatives took place in 2016. The primary election was held on August 2, 2016, and the general election was held on November 8, 2016. The candidate filing deadline was May 20, 2016.

Incumbent Lillian Ortiz-Self defeated Jeff Scherrer in the Washington House of Representatives, District 21-Position 2 general election.[1]

Washington House of Representatives, District 21-Position 2 General Election, 2016
Party Candidate Vote % Votes
     Democratic Green check mark transparent.png Lillian Ortiz-Self Incumbent 61.93% 38,170
     Republican Jeff Scherrer 38.07% 23,466
Total Votes 61,636
Source: Washington Secretary of State


Incumbent Lillian Ortiz-Self and Jeff Scherrer defeated Mohammed Riaz Khan and Bruce Guthrie in the Washington House of Representatives District 21-Position 2 top two primary.[2][3]

Washington House of Representatives, District 21-Position 2 Top Two Primary, 2016
Party Candidate Vote % Votes
     Democratic Green check mark transparent.png Lillian Ortiz-Self Incumbent 56.53% 14,760
     Republican Green check mark transparent.png Jeff Scherrer 32.36% 8,449
     No party preference Mohammed Riaz Khan 4.78% 1,248
     Libertarian Bruce Guthrie 6.33% 1,652
Total Votes 26,109
Source: Washington Secretary of State

Campaign themes

2024

Ballotpedia survey responses

See also: Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection

Candidate Connection

Bruce Guthrie completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2024. The survey questions appear in bold and are followed by Guthrie's responses. Candidates are asked three required questions for this survey, but they may answer additional optional questions as well.

Expand all | Collapse all

Bruce Guthrie is a 61 year-old retired Operations, Sales and Marketing Executive, with a second career in teaching. He has lived in Edmonds since 2008, and moved from the Midwest to Washington State in 1994. He and his wife, Julia have three kids in local private schools.

Education: BA Cornell U. 1987 MBA Northwestern U. 1992 Masters In Teaching, Seattle U. 2008 Political Experience: Ran for US Congress in the 2nd Congressional District in 2002 and again in 2004 as a Libertarian. Promoted marriage equality, bringing the troops home, and opposition to the USA PATRIOT Act. Past Chair, Whatcom County Libertarian Party. Alabama Hill Neighborhood Association Past Board member. Ran for US Senate in WA in 2006 and became the first Libertarian candidate to participate in the statewide, televised debates on KING 5. Vice-Chair of the Libertarian Party of WA, 2007-2008. Ran for 21st Legislative District Rep 2016. Ran for Mukilteo School Board in 2019 and got almost 32% of the vote against the incumbent who was School Board Chair. Other Professional Experience: Substitute Math and Science Teacher at various private schools. Former Director of Marketing at an ergonomic office chair manufacturer. Former factory statistical quality control manager. Former adjunct faculty, WWU College of Business and Economics: taught courses in Factory Management, Management Strategy, and Organization Behavior. National Sales Manager.

Small business owner.
  • Cut Taxes and Spending: Most of the incumbents in Olympia want to implement a State Income Tax. I promise to vote against any such attempts. I want to cut sales taxes and property taxes, and cut State spending by even more so that we may fully fund the rainy day fund.
  • School Choice: About half of the other US States have School Choice, and Washington needs it, too. Competition and choice improve product and service quality, and keeps prices in check for retail consumers, and it works in education as well. Private schools prove that. Homeschooling is even better in terms of both educational outcomes and reduced costs. Vouchers and Charter Schools are great steps in the right direction. Parents should more easily be able to move their children to any public school that has space.
  • Transportation: Instead of spending more money on trains, buses and bike lanes, which fewer Washingtonians will actually use, Washington needs another lane on I-5.
Term Limits: Power corrupts. The longer a person wields such excessive power as we have allowed our legislators to seize, the more likely they will become corrupt. Three or four terms is plenty in the Legislature.
George Washington left power when he could have made himself a King. He was able to resist the temptations of power. The world needs more people like that. Thomas Jefferson promoted the ideals of Liberty. He knew that those ideas had to be extended to women and Black slaves, but could not achieve that extension in his lifetime. I would like to help to teach the world the ideals of Liberty.
Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand

Economics in One Lesson by Henry Hazlit
Healing our World in an Age of Aggression by Mary Ruwart
The Libertarian Reader by David Boaz
The Law by Friedrich Bastiat
Free to Choose by Milton Friedman

Basic Economics by Thomas Sowell
Elected officials wield too much power. And power corrupts. Over time, even the most honest and wise and well-intentioned person, when given that much power, will tend to become corrupted. We do not have angels among us who have the character to resist this corrosive effect. We need, instead, to reduce the power. It should be decentralized, privatized, and made more accountable to the people. The beginning of wisdom, according to the Greeks, was to know thyself. Well, the most dangerous politician is the one who does not fear this tendency to becoming corrupt. (This is why Gandalf, in The Lord of the Rings, wisely refuses to be the ring bearer. Instead, only the most humble Hobbit could carry it.) The politician who lacks humility is the most dangerous, yet the very people drawn to becoming politicians are much more likely to have hubris and to be narcissistic. Jefferson said that the natural tendency is for government to gain power and for liberty to recede. The politicians in Olympia have slowly gained too much power. The size and scope of government should be dramatically reduced.
I'm smart and I can listen. I am an excellent communicator and teacher. I can compromise to defend the rights of the people incrementally.
The most important thing for a politician to do is to NOT support or vote for any legislation that violates the Bill of Rights, and the Federal and WA Constitutions.
I would like to make the world just a little bit more free.
When I was in 2nd grade, Nixon was running against Agnew. I discovered that the poor people seemed all to favor Agnew, but my parents were Nixon fans. Then Nixon resigned in shame. I remember having to register for the draft when Reagan was seeking his first term. I was afraid I would be drafted and killed in some horrible war. Then, Reagan brought the troops home from Beirut. And his rhetoric was very libertarian for a Republican. He listened to Milton Friedman and ended the implementation of the draft. When I finally got out of college, and got my act together to figure out how to vote, George H. W. Bush was running, and he said "read my lips: no new taxes." So I voted for him. But then he violated that pledge. I have voted Libertarian in every presidential election since then.
I was a vacation janitor in a 40-unit apartment building in Evanston, Illinois. I mowed lawns, vacuumed rugs in the entryways, and burned trash in an incinerator room in the basement, when the humidity outside was 90%, and the temperature was in the 90's. I learned responsibility, and the value of hard work. I also learned the ability to tough-out difficult situations. I did that for two entire summers while in High School.
Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand
It lifts the unjust guilt trip that society wants to burden all creative people with. It sets us free to pursue our own rational self-interest, and live our lives in our own particular way, so long as we are peaceful, and deal with other peaceful people on a truly voluntary basis. The result of such a philosophy is greater prosperity for all, especially for the poorest. Those who don't defend individual rights can not defend the rights of minorities. Because the ultimate minority is the individual.
John Galt from Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand
I Won't Back Down by Tom Petty
Sunshine by Jonathan Edwards
Grief. My first wife died of breast cancer back in 2005. I will always have a "shard of glass" in my heart. But I now have a wonderful wife with three wonderful kids. At my advanced age, this can be a bit difficult. Two of my three kids are on the autism spectrum. But they are very high functioning, and love to talk with me about Calculus! One of my sons is gay, and my daughter is bisexual. But fortunately, I am on record as being a defender of marriage equality since my first Libertarian campaign back in 2002. At that time, my Democratic opponent thought that marriage was between one man and one woman. Sigh. Politicians do not lead. They put their finger in the wind and support whatever they think will get them elected.
The governor should be an additional check and balance on the power of the legislature, and should veto bills that violate the rights of the people, tend to grant excessive power to government, or violate the State or Federal Constitutions.
The dead-weight drag of government taxation and over-regulation in our state are crushing small business, and hurting the poor by reducing employment.
Of course, but right now the existing government policies are so bad, that non-governmental perspective is more important.
Of course. Politics is the art of compromise. One single vote in the legislature can not pass any laws. I would work with any coalition to defend our rights to life, liberty and property. I would oppose any legislation that erodes the defense of those rights.
Thomas Massie, a congressman from Kentucky, Ron Paul, Rand Paul, and Javier Milei of Argentina are some of my favorite politicians. I don't agree with them on every issue, but I would be honored to be considered generally on their side. I am NOT a Trump supporter. I am NOT a Biden supporter.
This is my sixth campaign. I am very likely to run for office in the future. But I have no specific plans at this point. I will seek opportunities as they arise.
My son attended Mukilteo Elementary for two years. There he was bullied. The IEP program to help with his autism was a nightmare that mostly prevented the easy accommodations he needed. The teachers had had the passion sucked out of their teaching styles by a overly-bureaucratic education system that told them what they had to teach and how they had to teach it. But then we got him in to a good, secular private school. This school is liberal. It is one of the most LGBTQ+ friendly places I have ever seen. It is multicultural, and BIPOC applicants are encouraged. Full-ride scholarships are available to those who can't afford it. And the education is excellent. I want to extend the privilege of being able to attend such an institution to all Washingtonians by implementing vouchers and charter schools. My opponent wants to force poor, and disproportionately BIPOC people in to a failing government near-monopoly school system. She is not racist. But though her rhetoric is extremely compassionate, the result of her policies is unintentionally racist. I want all kids in Washington to be able to choose the best school for them. I want schools to compete with each other, so that they will have an incentive to improve, instead of forcing poor kids in to a failing school system that will leave them with workplace disadvantages for the rest of their lives.
Q: How many Libertarians does it take to change a lightbulb?

A: None, the Free Market will take care of that.
Q: How many radical feminists does it take to change a lightbulb?
A: THAT'S NOT FUNNY!
Q: How many Advertising Creative Directors does it take to change a lightbulb?
A: ...does it have to be a lightbulb?
Q: Why did the grasshopper cross the road?
A: Because it was stapled to a chicken.
Q: What do you get if you cross an elephant with a rhinoceros?

A: Eleph-ino?
Emergency powers should be strictly overseen by the legislature, and should only be used in true emergencies. An emergency should never be an excuse for the executive branch to seize excessive power. It should never be used by the legislative branch to stifle the will of the people. I think that generally, and most recently, and increasingly, emergency power has been over-used and abused by politicians in Olympia.
Term Limits.
Stand for Health Freedom, US Term Limits, Fred James, Tim Eyman
Education, budget and civil rights.
Government needs to be much more transparent. Right now, it's reports to the people are intentionally obscure and hard to read. The politicians attempt to hide what they are doing, because they know it would be unpopular. Right now, the main mechanism of government accountability is broken: the press. The First Amendment enshrines the press as a sort of "4th Estate." It's function is to hold the powerful to account. But the mainstream media has been captured by the political left, and gives shelter to their misdeeds. The right-wing media, like Fox News, performs a similar function for the right. Objectivity is no longer a real goal of the media. Instead, they take sides in the political power struggle. Until there is real reform in the media, we will continue to have bad government transperency, and bad government accountability.
Recently, (6/14/24) I was arrested for collecting ballot signatures in a public park. The event organizer, who was under contract with the City of Edmonds, and the Edmonds police violated my civil rights. Police officers need to be educated not to intimidate peaceful petition signature gatherers or sign-wavers in public spaces. This is a First Amendment issue.
The Attorney General of WA has gone on a personal tirade against Tim Eyman. This has been unjust and should be reversed. The Supreme Court of WA overturned a valid ballot initiative against Sound Transit's excessive vehicle tab fees. This was a miscarriage of justice, and should be reversed.

Note: Ballotpedia reserves the right to edit Candidate Connection survey responses. Any edits made by Ballotpedia will be clearly marked with [brackets] for the public. If the candidate disagrees with an edit, he or she may request the full removal of the survey response from Ballotpedia.org. Ballotpedia does not edit or correct typographical errors unless the candidate's campaign requests it.

2016

Guthrie's campaign website highlighted the following issues:

  • Education
  • Transportation
  • Taxes
“

This district should be proud of its diversity. We are socially tolerant in the 21st District. But we don't want our taxes raised. We know that the Legislature down in Olympia is a mess, and that giving politicians more power just tends to corrupt them more. Send me to Olympia and I will defend social tolerance and diversity, while holding the line on tax increases.[4]

”
—Bruce Guthrie[5]

See also

2024 Elections

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External links

Candidate

Washington House of Representatives District 21-Position 2
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    Footnotes

    1. ↑ Washington Secretary of State, "General Election Results 2016," accessed December 2, 2016
    2. ↑ Washington Secretary of State, "2016 Candidates Who Have Filed," accessed May 23, 2016
    3. ↑ Washington Secretary of State, "August 2, 2016 Primary Results," accessed August 25, 2016
    4. ↑ Note: This text is quoted verbatim from the original source. Any inconsistencies are attributable to the original source.
    5. ↑ Bruce Guthrie, "Platform," accessed June 27, 2016


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