[1] Bruce had previously been a member of the Hillsboro City Council, and was re-elected to the Senate in 2006 and 2010, but lost a bid in 2012 to be the Oregon Labor Commissioner.

[3][4] That year he completed high school in independent study in order to work for the campaign of Joe Lutz who was running against Bob Packwood.

[5] After high school he attended Portland State University (PSU) and worked as a legislative intern for Oregon Senator Bob Kintigh during the 1987 and 1989 legislatures.

[5][6] In 1992, Starr was selected to serve on the Republican Party's Washington County Central Committee for a two-year term.

[8] He served as a committee person at his local Republican precinct and as a legislative aide to his father before election to the Hillsboro City Council in 1994.

[5] He won re-election to the House in 2000, winning 57% of the vote and defeating Libertarian David Hintz who received 3% and Democrat Cathy Lamb-Mullin with 40%.

[19] Starr won re-election to the Senate in November 2006, defeating Democrat John Napolitano with 54% to 46% of the vote after running unopposed in the May primary.

[21] In February 2007, he was fined by the state's ethics commission a total of $300 for failing to report two trips paid for by lobbyists as required by law.

[22] Starr sponsored a bill that required the Oregon Department of Motor Vehicles to issue driver's licenses only to legal residents in May 2007.

[26] Starr did enter the race to serve as Commissioner of the Oregon Bureau of Labor and Industries in December 2011 for the May 2012 primary.

[32] He ran unopposed in the Republican primary and defeated Democratic farmer Scott Hooper and Green/Working Families paralegal Andrea Kennedy-Smith in the November general election with 56.2% of the vote.