A new name has emerged in the battle for the 31st District state senate seat.

Brian L. Gunn has stepped forward as a write-in candidate in the 31st Legislative District State Senate race.

“The choices left to the voters of the 31st L.D. by the Top Two Primary are intolerable,” said Gunn in a press release. “A write-in gives voters an option. The chain of absurdities that got us to this point might make a good sitcom but, it’s bad for the District and bad for the State of Washington.”

Gunn, 48 is a software tester from Auburn. Though he has been active in Democratic politics in the district for several years, this is his first run for elected office.

Gunn did not run in the August primary, in which voters selected incumbent Senator Pam Roach and Sumner City Councilman Matt Richardson, both Republicans, as the top two candidates for the Nov. 2 general election.

“I’m running as a write-in because the voters of the 31st L.D. deserve an alternative to Roach and Richardson. To send either of those people to Olympia would be an embarrassment to the good people of the 31st,” he said. “I can offer myself as an alternative—a sane person who comes to the voters without baggage.”

Gunn believes in getting big money out of our political system, relieving the burden on small businesses and homeowners through tax reform, and straightening out the mess our primary election system has become.

“We’ll never have meaningful reform in this state as long as politicians are dependent on corporate money to win elections. Just look at what the big money system has given us for ballot choices in the 31st,” he said.

Gunn said he not only endorses I-1098, but volunteered to collect signatures for the petition.

“If you make more than $200,000 as an individual or more than $400,000 as a couple, your personal responsibility to your community as an American is to give a little more,” Gunn said.

He believes that Washington jobs start with the elimination of the punitive Business and Occupation tax that stifles small business and the jobs they create.

Gunn has volunteered as an after-school tutor for elementary and middle-school children and has worked on habitat restoration and cleanup projects in the Puget Sound watershed. Funding for schools and protecting the environment are high on his list of priorities.

In keeping with the principles of Clean Elections and his belief in grassroots fundamentals, Gunn said he will accept no donations or contributions as a write-in candidate.