Libertarian Candidate Bruce Guthrie Reaches Washington Voters
U.S. Senate candidate Bruce Guthrie jumped a high hurdle recently by loaning his campaign $1.2 million to primarily qualify for the televised debate that aired last night on Seattle's King 5.
Here's KIRO 7's take on the evening:
Inside the studio, Libertarian candidate Bruce Guthrie provided the fireworks and humor, a counterpoint to well-rehearsed soundbites from the two mainline candidates. He staked out left-of-center positions that could erode some of Democrat Cantwell's base, strenuously opposing the war in Iraq, supporting gay marriage and decriminalization of marijuana and blistering both major parties for a variety of ills, including the big federal deficit.
He also drew chuckles when he said "I'm the poorest millionaire up here." Cantwell and McGavick got wealthy in the private sector. Guthrie cashed in all his assets so he could loan his campaign $1.2 million, the bare minimum required by debate organizers to show at least modest support.
After viewing the debate, I can say that Mr. Guthrie made us proud with his performance, not to mention his willingness to go "all in" in order to compete.
You can watch the entire debate by clicking here.
Posted by Shane Cory at October 18, 2006 11:02 AM
Reader Comments:
Bruce did a great job! Please donate whatever you can to the Guthrie campaign and the Smither campaign. They may be the Libertarians' 2 best chances that ever were and will ever be.
Posted by: RustyZ at October 18, 2006 11:43 AM
He did a good job, but didn't seem to be too well rehearsed. Too much 'um' and 'ah'. Good debate, though.
Posted by: Hascat at October 18, 2006 12:20 PM
Where is Mr. Guthrie on the candidate tracker?
The articles on the debate are very nice, but some answers and the coverage is surprising.
Would donations be better used in WA, TX, by the candidates or by the parties??
My hope would be that efforts in 2006 would build towards further steps in 2008. Ballot presence in state after state.
Emancipation can take generations.
If a Libertarian is elected (congrats to Ms. Chambers), that is most wonderful.
Thank you candidates.
Posted by: LPiberty at October 18, 2006 12:44 PM
Very good, however I think he should cut back on the use of two lines:
"We should bring back the troops as quickly as is consistent with their safety."
and
"I am socially liberal and fiscally conservative."
They're great statements, but repeating them over and over makes him sound like a bumper sticker candidate.
Posted by: BPerry at October 18, 2006 01:21 PM
Geez, how can they justify having the qualification for the debate be the amount of money in the campaign? That's ridiculous. At the very most they should be looking at opinion polls and basing it off the percentage of support.
Although personally, I think that as long as someone has met the requirements to make it onto the ballot then that person deserves to be given equal access to things like debates, and the voters deserve to get equal access to that candidate.
Posted by: Josh at October 18, 2006 01:26 PM
Is that called a debate? They could have just as easily printed the question and answers in a newspaper for people to read. Someday I hope we'll have chance to really see candidates confront each other on issues.
Posted by: Anthony at October 18, 2006 02:06 PM
To LPiberty. In my opinion the money is better spent by the candidates themselves. After being a member of the LP for over 20 years, it seems that the money donated to the LP is usually spent on software and mailings to get me to donate more money to the LP. And it's been that same circular motion for two decades. Now I only donate money to the candidates directly.
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