出生名门，Bill Bruch的父亲是当时华盛顿州最大的房地产公司John L Scott公司的总裁。Bill年轻时酷爱运动，入选过全明星队，后来子承父业，从事房地产经纪和物业管理后做的风生水起，之后又从政，担任Skagit县La Conner市的议员，并当选为Skagit县的共和党主席。Bill Bruch于2019年支持华人社区发起的反I-1000运动，他希望在华州的议会里能有更多的共和党的席位。

西雅图中文电台2020年美国大选特别节目，专访华盛顿州第10选区州众议员候选人比尔.布拉克Bill Bruch。

专访华盛顿州第十选区众议员候选人比尔·布拉克：Interview Washington House Representative Candidate Bill Bruch （LD 10, R) （2020年10月30日，小元主持，嘉宾：Billl Bruch ，翻译：雅秋）

小元：晚上的听众和听众晚上好。欢迎收听西雅图中文电台2020年选举特别节目。我们非常荣幸地采访华盛顿州第10立法区的州众议员候选人比尔·布拉克。

比尔·布拉克（Bill Bruch）：非常感谢您的邀请。

小元：让我介绍一下比尔，比尔·布拉克是第10选区州众议院的共和党候选人。他曾任拉康纳镇议会议员。目前，他是斯卡吉特县共和党主席。他曾担任房地产经纪人和项目经理。我们很荣幸邀请到您。

我的第一个问题是，您作为房地产经纪人和物业经理，事业很成功，并且您从事这个工作已有30多年了。那么，您可以与我们分享您的成功故事吗？

比尔·布拉克：当然。所以我从小到大，父亲是房地产经纪人，他热爱房地产。而且我也从小喜欢房地产。我还记得自己还是一个小男孩的时候，和他一起外出看着财产和土地，并与他一起张贴标志。他在房地产领域表现出色。

他曾与房地产公司John L Scott合作。他曾任分行经理，然后是副总裁。然后在1976年， John L Scott房地产总裁去世，我父亲接管了公司，并成为约翰L斯科特（John L Scott）房地产公司的总裁。当时，它是华州最大的房地产公司。

他从1976年至1980年经营公司。1985年，我决定获得房地产许可证，最终成为一名房地产经纪人，并出售住宅和商业房地产大约5年。然后，我成为房地产规划师已有很多年了。我还曾做了几年游艇经纪人，并在拉康纳（La Conner）镇度过了几年的时光，在那里我拥有了自己的生意“萨利什海画廊（Salish Sea Gallery）”并出售了艺术，书籍和摄影作品。最近十年来，我一直担任专职物业经理。当我于2010年开始在拉康纳（La Conner）工作时，我接管的房地产中有70％空置了，一年半的时间我就填补所有空房（4栋建筑中约20名租户）。目前，我拥有自己的物业管理业务，并在整个斯卡吉特县管理物业，包括阿尔及尔，阿纳科特斯，伯灵顿，菲达尔戈岛，拉康纳，弗农山和塞德罗-伍利（总共约50个租户）。我代表几个所有权集团，从事簿记，租赁等工作。我管理的物业包括住宅，商业，工业，农业和农村保护区。

小元：我知道你高中时就当过运动员。对您的职业有何影响？

比尔·布拉克（Bill Bruch）：我一直热爱运动，并且记得我和两个弟弟经常想象在后院进行的每项运动。我是高中时的棒球和足球界的全明星，而我的弟弟鲍比（Bobby）成为职业足球运动员。我也一直热爱帆船运动，并且在许多类型的船只上参加帆船比赛已有多年，我想参加奥运会，最终以Finn级别参加奥运会培训，我是美国帆船队的一员。 1989年，我在1989年华盛顿州百年运动会（相当于州锦标赛）的激光级别的比赛中获得了铜牌。

小元：是什么让您决定从贝尔维尤（Bellevue）搬至斯卡吉特县（Skagit）的？

比尔·布拉克（Bill Bruch）：我发现Skagit这里的人少了很多，道路也少了很多。而且我一直热爱乡村生活方式和乡村生活，并计划降低住房成本以及所有这些。所以我大约20年前搬来了这里。

我在斯卡吉特已有16年了。因此，乡村生活方式的确会变慢，减少交通流量。人少了，我只喜欢这里的山水。我还有时间在山里徒步旅行。这只是该州一个非常美丽的地区。

小元：是什么促使您进入政治舞台的？

比尔·布拉克：这是一个很好的问题。

我一直对政治感兴趣。我年轻时就是共和党人，在东部，年轻的共和党人在西雅图，实际上更多的是在贝尔维尤地区。我记得我为总统候选人鲍勃·多尔做志愿者。我记得在波音运动场见过他。那时非常令人兴奋，我还很小，那时我做了一些志愿工作。

而且我更专注于自己的职业。但是我一直很感兴趣。然后回到2014年和2015年，我在拉康纳（La Connor）非常活跃。那时，我曾是LA Connor的物业经理，后来刚成为一名商人。我对镇里里的计划委员会非常感兴趣。我参加了这些会议和一些镇议会会议。我也活跃在拉康纳住宿税咨询委员会。我在2015年担任委员会主席。然后在2016年，拉康纳（La Connor）市长说，嘿，你想竞选公职吗？

正好那是镇议会上有一个空缺。

我想，也许我会尝试。所以我决定参加这个职位的竞选，然后我当选了。我在那里。我在镇议会中度过了愉快的时光。当我在那里的时候，我是公园委员会，停车港委员会以及公用事业委员会的成员。我帮助制定了一些预算。在这个过程中，我学到了很多东西，在很短的时间内，也是小城市咨询委员会华盛顿市协会的成员。因此，我得以参加华盛顿州的几次协会会议，并学到了很多东西。那里也遇到了很多很好的人。

2016年，我是Ted Cruz的大力支持者。我被录用为斯卡吉特县特德·克鲁兹（Skagit County）竞选委员会的主席，最终成为特德·克鲁兹（Ted Cruz）的第二届国会区副主席。我最终成为共和党全国代表大会代表。然后去克利夫兰，华州仅有的44个人中的一员，最终支持了特朗普和彭斯。因此，这是一次了不起的经历。我从未计划过的事情。只是发生了某种事。然后我被招募为Skagit县的共和党主席。

担任Skagit县共和党主席之后，我建立了许多不同的，非常有趣的联系。我和很多立法者见面。我了解了党派制度的重要性。我从政治中学到了很多。四年后2018年我得到了连任了该县的共和党主席。

我第二个人其即将结束。这段时间我学到了很多东西。当任何现任立法者决定退休或辞职，或者他们去世或其他任何事情时，都是主席的职责去更换现任立法会议员。这是一个非常非常负责任的职位。

这是遵循华盛顿州宪法的。作为替换州议员这个过程的负责人时，那是如此重要。州宪法规定，与华盛顿州共和党章程相关的党主席，我们与PCO和基层志愿者合作。我们找到了三个候选人，并对他们进行排名。然后，当我们得到希望被任命到即将离任的人要离开的位置的那三名候选人的时候，我们将这三个名字提供给管理部门，然后由他们做出决定。三年之内，共五次更换议员，第一个卡洛琳·埃斯里克（Carolyn eslick）取代了约翰·科斯特（John koster）。

很多人可能还记得约翰·科斯特（John koster），他是非常非常好的人，2016的时候，他在奥林匹亚辞职了。之后，参议员柯克·皮尔森（Kirk Pearson）决定去特朗普政府工作。我们用市长基思·瓦格纳（Keith Wagner）代替了他。现在他是我们新的第39区立法议员。去年，贝利参议员芭芭拉·贝利决定退休。我们以RON取代了她。因此，在这些经历中，需要学习和结识很多人。因此，我可以将政治背景下的准商业应用到我现在想要竞选州立立法的工作中，希望能成为州众议员。

小元：做得好。那么，当您成为拉康纳市议会议员时，您最大的成就是什么？

比尔·布拉克（Bill Bruch）：我必须说最大的成就，我真的很高兴成为华盛顿小城市咨询委员会的成员。

我被当选这个委员会的成员的。这对我来说真的很愉快。我当时想说一句话。我很喜欢参加会议。我记得去奥林匹亚和温哥华以及全州各地开会，学到了很多东西。

当我去参加这些会议时，从学校董事会到县专员，每位政府官员在地方一级对地方政治有多重要？两者之间的一切都非常非常重要。我从中学到了很多东西，知道工作很辛苦。我想说的另一件事是我很保守。我一直在考虑任期限制。而且我仍然喜欢任期有限制。但是，当我查看市议会的时候，我改变了看法，因为我看到了它有多少工作以及学到了多少东西。要真正了解您在做什么，需要花费很多时间，两年，三年和四年。作为党的主席，我花了两年时间才理清一切。

第三年我真的很明白。现在我真的很了解。因此，我不反对任期限制，但我会增加任期限制。我一直以为四年就够了。现在，我想的更像是12年或16年的任期限制。我希望看到这一点，以及联邦一级的传统制度，不是四年或八年，而是更长的期限，也许是十二年或十六年。

小元：作为州议员，您最优先考虑的是什么？

Bill Bruch：我很有纪律。我真的有认识我的人。我投入我的工作。我擅长多任务处理。因为我有那么多的工作头衔。

我已经练习了很多。我非常擅长解决问题。物业经理每天要解决的工作之一是不同的。我可能在一天之内在不同的项目中遇到四次故障。您的工作是修复问题，无论我是否修复它们，在哪里找其他人来挑选它们。所以我擅长解决问题。而且我认为这将是立法机关的一项非常好的技巧。我们如何解决我们遇到的一些问题？

小元：你作为华州的州议员，将为遏制新冠病毒做些什么？

比尔·布拉克（Bill Bruch）：因此，我一直在提倡尽快开放学校，也要让小型企业开业。当大流行在2月，即3月开始时，人们非常担心。我们不知道那是什么。

我完全同意Inslee州长和特朗普总统，关闭两个星期的经济，为期15天，以减缓扩散。我们真的不知道。我在办公室与州参议员和县议员开会。他们在二月底（三月初）谈话。现在，有20万人死于这种状态，他们不知道这是一场大流行。有很多恐惧。并且，我们不知道我们要干什么。但是在那之后的大约一个月内，我们发现这没有我们想像的那么糟糕。即使是今天，截至目前，华盛顿州不到3.5％的床位是与新冠病毒COVID相关的。而斯卡吉特县少于1％的床位与COVID-19有关。但是，许多被诊断出患有新冠病毒COVID的人确实没有症状或只有很少的症状。

他们没有病。他们没有咳嗽。因此，这并不像我们想象的那么糟糕。而且，我只是认为这些强制性命令对我们的经济没有好处，因为随着家庭暴力的增加，我们的自杀人数增加了，毒品过量也有所增加，而这些封锁和措施所带来的种种不利影响也随之而来。我认为我们应该开放小型企业。我有自己生意的朋友。看着他们非常非常困难，因为他们正在失去自己的业务，全州成千上万的业务。因此，我希望看到州长开放经济，减少法规要求。例如，一家餐厅只能容纳50％的容量。我有餐厅朋友老板，这些商家是在50％的容量是无法赚钱的，在忙碌的时候必须有80％的容量才能赚钱，才能支付工资。

仅举一个例子，我认为企业足够聪明，使他们能够执行自己的程序。如果银行说，嘿，您必须戴口罩进来，这很好。但是，如果一家企业因为您没有戴口罩而拒绝您，那么我认为我们应该尊重这些企业并允许他们制定协议。

拉康纳（La Connor）有一家非常成功的公司，叫做达科他河（Dakota creek）。他们已经建立了很多协议，如果有人生病，他们每天都会测体温。他们把他们送回家，然后把他送到诊所接受检查，然后他们隔离了几天，之后他们再回来。他们有洗手站。我认为每个业务都可以非常安全地运营。我们应该允许企业开放自己的位置。

小元：在这次选举中，您和您的竞选对手相比最大的优势是什么？

比尔·布拉克（Bill Bruch）：所以我的对手支持从幼儿园开始的儿童性教育。这是听众可能已经听说过的州规定。今年正在投票的是R-90。

我的对手对儿童性教育公投R-90非常支持。实际上，他是提出此议案的立法者。他认为这很好，我认为这不好。我认为对于年幼的孩子来说，接受性教育还太早很危险。而且，如果您看一下课程表，我认为还是太年轻，不能开始。在这么小的年龄，孩子就被灌输性教育。所以我反对，另一件事是我的对手在两年内错过了很多票（弃权）。他错过了在2019立法会议48票，2020年立法会错过104票。如果我当选，我不会放弃投票，但他没来放弃给增税投票。我的竞选对手投票赞成增加11种税收，包括商业税和财产税，房地产税，房地产税，汽油税。

所以我想做完全相反的事情。我想提高透明度。我的对手也投票通过了几项仅有名字的法案。我不知道您的听众是否听说过 “鬼法案”。从字面上看，只有标题的法案是一张纸，上面只有标题，没有立法通过。然后在最后几周或几个月后的立法中，将其放入法案中，然后进行投票，并且通常它成为一种加税措施，我反对所有我认为这是不好的政策，我们应该取消这种法案。因此我希望提高透明度，减少税收和法规。

小元：为什么您赢得这次选举很重要？

比尔·布拉克（Bill Bruch）：在州议会大厦中，我们需要更多的平衡。目前共有41名共和党人，和57名民主党人。这样差距太大，无法完成任何事情。当多数党有如此大的优势时，他们可以做任何想做的事。因此，我试图击败现任的民主党人士，并以共和党席位取代民主议席，这将在立法机构中获得更多的平衡。因此，希望我们可以得到三四个席位，并有所作为。现在是57：41。华州共有49个立法区。在每个立法中，该地区都有两名众议院代表。总共有98个众议员。如果双方人数相等更好。也许在今年之后，也许是54:44。所以要在那儿带来更多的平衡，

小元：您能对华人社区和亚裔社区的选民说些什么吗？

比尔·布拉克：就像我不会说中文。但是我有一个长期的中国朋友， 1984年，我能够从维多利亚州乘帆船到夏威夷参加毛伊岛帆船赛。我和其中一名船员在下面，我也要转向。他是一个很好的中国朋友。我没有很多中国朋友，但他绝对是其中之一。我真的很开心地记得新手和非常好的水手，他是非常好的水手。

同样到去年，我在华人社区遇到了很多朋友。如果您还记得去年华州的R-88公投， I-1000被投票通过。那是反平权行动。正是出于歧视。所以我与华人社区，很多华人社区合作。我们帮助获得很多签名，以进行投票。我和他们在华人社区结识了很多朋友，得到了很多尊重，非常努力。作为一个团队，我们一起完成了很多工作。

小元：太好了。谢谢。祝您选举顺利。让我们保持联系。

Bill Bruch：非常感谢您的邀请，祝您周末愉快。谢谢。

Xiaoyuan: Good evening audience and listeners. Welcome to Chinese radio Seattle 2020 election special program. We are very honored to interview bill Bruch, state representative candidate of legislative district 10. Welcome, bill.

Bill Bruch: Thank you for having me, very much appreciated.

Xiaoyuan: Let me introduce bill. Bill Bruch is a republican candidate for legislative district 10 state house. He’s a former the La Conner Town council member. And currently, he is the Skagit County Republican Party chairman. He had been a realtor and property and a project manager. We are honored to have you.

So my first question is, you are really successful as a realtor and property manager, and you have been in the business for more than 30 years. So can you share with us your story of success in business?

Bill Bruch: Certainly. So I grew up as a young boy and my dad was a real estate agent and he loved real estate. And I love real estate. And I remember as a young boy going out and looking at property and land and putting up signs with him. And he did very well in real estate.

He worked with John L Scott, a real estate company. And he worked as a branch manager and then a vice president. And then in 1976, the president of John L Scott real estate passed away, John L Scott senior, and my dad took over the company and became president of the John L Scott real estate company. At the time. It was the largest real estate company in the state.

He ran the company from 1976 – 1980. In 1985 I decided to get my Real-Estate license and ended up becoming a Realtor and selling residential and commercial real-estate for about 5 years.  I then became an Estate Planner for many years. I also spent a few years as a Yacht Broker and a few years as a merchant in La Conner where I owned my own business, “The Salish Sea Gallery”and sold Art, Books and Photography. The last 10 years I have been a full time Property Manager. When I began in La Conner in the year 2010, 70 % of the properties I took over were vacant, in a year and a half I was able to fill all the spaces (about 20 tenants in 4 buildings). Currently I own my own property management business and manage properties throughout Skagit County, including Alger, Anacortes, Burlington, Fidalgo Island, La Conner, Mount Vernon and Sedro-Woolley (about 50 tenants total). I represent several ownership groups, do the bookkeeping, leasing, etc. The properties I manage are a mix of Residential, Commercial, Industrial, Agriculture and Rural-Reserve.

Xiaoyuan: I have learned you had been an athlete when you were a high school student. And what’s the impact to you in your career?

Bill Bruch:  I have always loved sports and remember constantly playing in the backyard every sport you can imagine with my two younger brothers. I was an all-star in baseball and football and my younger brother Bobby became a professional soccer player. I also always loved sailing and I raced sailboats competitively for many years in many classes and types of boats, I wanted to be in the Olympics and I ended up training for the Olympics in the Finn class, I was part of the U.S. Sailing Team in 1988-89. In 1989 I won the Bronze medal in the1989 Washington State Centennial Games (Equivalent of the State Championships) Laser class.

Xiaoyuan: What made you make the decision to move from Bellevue to Skagit county?

Bill Bruch: it’s just so much when I grew up, I found here there was a lot less traffic, a lot less people, a lot less roads. And i’ve always love rural lifestyle and country living and scheduled to lower costs of housing and all of that. So I moved back about 20 years ago.

I’ve been to Skagit county. I lived in bowl for four years. And i’ve been Skagit for 16 years. So a rural lifestyle does slower, pace less traffic. Just less people and I enjoy just my mountains and water. I still have time to vote here and hike in the mountains. And it’s just a very beautiful area of the state.

Xiaoyuan: So at that time, it’s very good market opportunity right? You were a property manager.

Bill Bruch: Yes, it’s very, very busy. Right now. My heart goes out to renters because the prices are going so high for rentals, it’s very, very difficult. We have a housing shortage in the states. And that’s one of the things I want to do is legislators try to get more housing going because we have about 230,000 units short in the statewide. And we need more housing supply demand. It’s making a very, very expensive for people to live.

Xiaoyuan: what propelled you into the political arena?

Bill Bruch: That’s a good question.

I’ve always been interested in politics. Growing up was part of the young republicans, east side, young republicans, which was in the Seattle, actually more in the Bellevue area. I remember I volunteered for a president candidate Bob Dole. I remember meeting him in Boeing field. And that was exciting at the time again, I was very young and I did some volunteering work then. But I was kind of got out of it. And I was focusing more on my career. But I always had interest. And then back 2014 and 2015, I was in a La Conner. I was very active in La Connor. At that time, I was the property manager of LA Connor and just finishing up being a merchant. And I got very interested in the planning commission. I went to those meetings and some of the town council meetings. And I was active on the La Connor lodging tax advisory committee. I was chairman in 2015. And then in 2016, the mayor of La Connor said, hey, would you like to run for office?

There’s an opening coming up on the town council like that.

I’ll think about it. And I thought, maybe i’ll try. So I decided to run for elected position. And I got elected. And I served there. I really enjoyed my time in the town council. While I was there, I was on the parks commission and the parking port committee, and the utilities committee. And I helped developed some of the look on the budgets. And I learned a lot through that process. Again, a lot of respect for people in government. And at that time, too, for a small part of that time, was also on the association of Washington cities, small city advisory committee. And so I was able to go to several association Washington meetings around the state and learned a lot. There met a lot of nice people as well.

They’re then in 2016, I was a big Ted Cruz supporter. And I got recruited to be the Skagit county Ted Cruz chairman, and end up being the second congressional district vice chair for Ted Cruz. I ended up being a national convention delegates. And going to Cleveland, one of the only 44 people in the state to do that and ended up supporting Trump and Pence. So that was an amazing experience. Something I never planned on. It just kind of happened. And then after that, I got recruited again. I was kind of get recruited to be the chairman.

The Skagit county Republican Party is something I didn’t think about. He couldn’t find anybody to know why don’t you appoint somebody else? They couldn’t. So I decided to do that. and that led me to a lot of different, really interesting connections. And I met a lot of our legislators. I learned how important the party system is. And I learned a lot about politics. After four years I got reelected in 2018.

I’m finishing my second term 4th year. I learned at a tremendous amount during that time. When any sitting legislator decides to retire or resign or they passes away or anything, it’s the job of the chairman. The PCO, the precinct committee officers to replace a sitting legislator. It’s a very, very responsible position.

It follows the Washington state constitution. I had no idea it was so important when you replacing lead in legislator. So what the state constitution says is that the party chairman working with the Washington state Republican Party bylaws, we work with a PCOs and grassroots volunteers. And we find three candidates and we rank them. And then when we get the rain pickings of those three candidates that want to be appointed to the position where the outgoing person is leaving, then we give those three names to the governing authorities, and then they make the decision. So the Skagit county commissioners, the island county commissioners, this no home is county council, depending on which district we had, believe it or not, in three years, five times and Skagit county happened three times republicans. So the first one, Carolyn eslick, replaced John koster.

A lot of people probably remember John koster 16 years. Very, very good guy took a job down in Olympia. After that, Senator kirk Pearson decided to take a job with the Trump administration, who still works for the Trump administration. We replaced him with Keith Wagner, who was mayor seed willy. Now he’s our new legislative district 39 state senator. And then last year, Barbara bailey, senator bailey, decided to retire. We replaced her with our current senator RON resolve. So during those experiences, it’s a lot of learning and meeting people. And so I’m able to apply businesses, kind of quasi business in political background to what I’m trying to do now running for state legislative, hopefully being a state representative.

Xiaoyuan: good job. So what’s your biggest accomplishment when you were the city council member of La Conner?

Bill Bruch: Biggest accomplishment I would have to say, I really enjoy being on the association of Washington small cities advisory committee.

I was elected to do so. I was actually chosen to do that. That was really enjoyable to me. I want in a word at that time. And I just enjoy going to meetings. I remember going to meetings in Olympia and Vancouver and all around the state, and just learning a lot.

And when I went to these meetings, it kept getting embedded. How important local politics are every government official at the local level, from school board to county commissioner? Everything in between is very, very important. And I learned a lot about how hard the work is when I was on the look hundred. I think that’s the other thing I would say is I’m a conservative. And I always thought about term limits. And I still like term limits. But I changed my view when I was on the look on a town council because I saw how much work it is and how much learning there is. And it takes a lot of times, two and three and four years to really understand what you’re doing. And as chairman of the party, took me two years to figure out anything.

3rd year I really understand it. Now I really understand it well. So I’m not opposed to term limits, but I would increase term limits. I always thought four years was enough. Now I’m thinking more like 12 or 16 year term limits. I would like to see that across the board and traditional at the federal level as well, but not four years or eight years, but more, maybe 12 or 16 years for term limits.

Xiaoyuan: what will be your highest priority as a state representative?

Bill Bruch: I’m very disciplined. I really have people that know me. I throw myself into my work. I’m good at multitasking. Because I wear so many hats.

I’ve had a lot of practice. I’m very good at problem solving. One of the jobs as the property managers to fix things you never know every day is different. I something can break four times in one day in different projects. And your job is to fix things, whether I fix them, where I find somebody else to pick them. So I’m good at problem solving. And I think that would be a very good skill to take to the legislatures. How do we solve some of the problems we have?

Xiaoyuan: what will you do as the state representative for the Covid-19 pandemic?

Bill Bruch: So i’ve been advocating to get schools open as soon as possible, and also to get small businesses up and running. When the pandemic started back in February, in March, there was a lot of fear. We had no idea what it was.

And I was fully behind Governor Inslee and Trump in shutting down the economy for two weeks, members, 15 days to slow the spread. We really didn’t know. I was in a meeting in my office with a state senator and a county commissioner. They were talking at the end of February, early March. Now, 200,000 people dead in this state, they didn’t know it was very much pandemic. There was a lot of fear. And the idea to put an emergency dog decoration in place seemed very prudent on a good idea to make sure the hospitals weren’t overwhelmed. We had no idea what we’re in for. But within about a month after that, we found out it was nothing as bad as what we thought. And even today, as of right now, less than 3.5 percent of the beds in the hospitals are COVID related in Washington state. And in Skagit counties less than 1% COVID-19 related. And these people, a lot of the people that I know that cases are going up. But a lot of the people that are diagnosed with COVID did have no symptoms or very little symptoms.

They’re not sick. They’re not coughing. So it’s not nearly as bad as we thought. And I just don’t think these oppressive mandates are good for our economy that we’ve had suicide increases, and drug overdose increase, as domestic violence increases, and all sorts of bad a collateral impacts from these lock downs and measures. And I think we should open up small businesses. I have friends that own businesses. And it’s been very, very difficult to watch them because they’re losing their businesses, thousands of businesses across the state. So I would like to see the governor open up the mandates or loose the mandates and less on the regulations. For example, a restaurant can only have 50% capacity. And I have restaurant friend owners that are business people that can’t make a profit at 50% capacity, they have to be at 80% capacity during their busy times. And if they can’t make their payroll.

And just as one example, so I think businesses are smart enough, give them the ability to put their own procedures in place. And if the bank says, hey, you have to wear a mask to come in would be fine. But if a business says no, you don’t have the mask, then I think we should honor the businesses and allow them to put protocols in place.

There’s a very successful business in La Connor is called Dakota creek. They have set up plenty of protocols where if somebody’s sick, they take temperatures every day. They send them home, then they send him to a clinic, then they get tested. And then they quarantine for a few days. Then they come back. And they have hand washing stations. I think each business can operate very safely. We should allow the businesses to open their places.

Xiaoyuan: what’s your biggest advantage of your opponent in this election?

Bill Bruch:So my opponent is been a very much a proponent of the young sex education beginning in kindergarten. And it’s a state mandate that your listeners have probably heard about and read about. And it’s on the ballot this year is the R-90.

We’re talking about rejecting R-90 people that I’m working with. So my opponent has been a big proponent of this. In fact, he is the legislator that made the motion to move the bill out of committee. He thinks it’s good and I think it’s bad. I think it’s just too young for very young children to have sex education. I think it’s dangerous. And if you look at the curriculum, I think it’s just way too young to start. Children are indoctrinated them in such early age. So I’m against that the other thing is my opponent missed many many votes over two years. He missed 48 votes in the 2019 legislative session and 104 votes in the 2020 legislative session and you miss votes your legislator and if I get elected I won’t miss votes but he had time to vote for tax increases. My opponent voted for eleven tax increases including b and o taxes and property excise taxes, real estate excise taxes, gas taxes I went to lower the taxes.

So I want to do the exact opposite. And I wanna bring more transparency. My opponent also voted for several title only bills. I don’t know if your audience have heard of title only bills, but it’s also known as a ghost bill. A title only bill literally is a piece of paper with a title only on it with no legislation on to pass it. And then at the last minute weeks or months later legislation, it is put in the bill and then it gets voted on and oftentimes it becomes a tax increase I’m against all of that I think it’s bad policy and we should eliminate title.

Only bills so I’m for more transparency and less taxes and less regulations.

Xiaoyuan: You have been the Skagit county Republican Party chairman, and what have been what have you accomplished?

Bill Bruch: as the chairman of the party. I think I touched on that already. I think the three accomplishments about replacing the sitting senator, Barbara bailey, and then sitting senator kirk Pearson. And then sitting house representative John Coster were three of the most important things that we did as a county party chairman. It took a lot of time, a lot of energy, and a lot of work. You meet candidates, you go through the processes.

It’s very emotional for candidates. You meet a lot of people to select who will be the next representative. So I would say those three instances were probably the most valuable learning experiences.

Xiaoyuan: why it’s important that you win this election.

Bill Bruch: We need more balance in the state house of representatives. It’s 57 votes democrats to 41 republicans. And there’s too much disparity to get anything done. When the majority party has such a big advantage, they can do anything they want to do. So I am trying to defeat an incumbent democrat and replace a democrat seat with republican seat, which would get more balance in the legislature. So hopefully we can get maybe three or four seats and make a difference. And right now it’s 57 to 41. There’s 49 legislative districts in the state. In each legislative, this district have two house representatives. So there’s 98 total. It would be nice if that was more equal. Maybe after this year, maybe 54, 44, something closer. So to bring more balance down there,

Xiaoyuan: That’s right. last but not least, can you say something to the voters in the Chinese and Asian community?

Bill Bruch: Like I don’t speak Chinese. But one of my longtime friends, so I did when I was young, in 1984, I was able to sail boat race to Hawaii from Victoria to hold a Maui sailboat race. And one of the crew and I was under and I got to steer as well. His name was on yo, a very good Chinese friend. And I don’t have a lot of Chinese friends, but he definitely was one. And I really have fun memories of are new and very good sailor, a very good crew member.

And just teamwork working with him. Also to last year, I met a lot of friends in the Chinese community. If you remember the R 88, which was the oil years again, I-1000 it was voted. That was the anti affirmative action. It was discrimination with what it was in ferment. So I teamed up with the Chinese community, a lot of the Chinese community. We help get a lot of signatures to get that on the ballot. I and they made a lot of friends with the Chinese community and get a lot of respects, very hard workers. We got a lot done together working as a team.

Xiaoyuan: Wonderful. Thank you. And good luck in your election. And let’s keeping in touch.

Bill Bruch: Thank you so much for invitation and have a great weekend. Thank you.

【西雅图中文电台采访、制作，Bill Bruch的竞选网站：https://billbruchforhouse.com/】