Cruz and in 2010 with Senator Frank B. Aguon, Jr.[1] Governor Gutierrez has remained active in public life for a period spanning four decades.

As a young child during World War II, he endured the horrors of the Manenggon Concentration Camp, and alongside his mother and other captive Chamorros he was among those who were rescued by American soldiers during the liberation of Guam.

[2] When Gutierrez was a boy his father (unable to work due to an injury suffered as a teenager) and his mother had a difficult time raising such a large family.

[2] Following his tour in the Air Force from 1960 to 1965, Gutierrez entered into the business world, eventually forming CarlTom Construction Company.

During his first term, Carl Gutierrez authored the GHURA 500 Low and Moderate Income Housing Law, which used five parcels of government land in Dededo and Yigo to build 500 homes, and established the Guam Youth Congress.

A constitution was drafted and approved by US President Jimmy Carter and the U.S. Congress but was later not ratified by Guam in a 1979 special election.

In 1978, Carl Gutierrez ran for the office of governor as an independent, with Dr. Joseph Dizon, a Republican, as his running mate.

Four years after the senatorial districting plan for Guam was put in place in 1978, the courts ruled in early 1982 that it violated the principle of “one man, one vote”.

Of his nine total terms, he served three as chairman of the powerful Committee on Ways and Means, and was twice elected by his colleagues to be Speaker of the Legislature.

In 1994, Carl Gutierrez teamed up with Senator Madeleine Bordallo, the widow of former Governor Ricardo Jerome Bordallo, to run for the island's highest office once more on a platform of “Helping the People of Guam.” In the primary, they were challenged by the Democratic team of Edward D. Reyes and Gloria B. Nelson.

Gutierrez focused his work in the areas of infrastructure so that all the marginalized people will be brought into the 20th century before it went out and also pushing for economic development by aggressively completing 85% of his Vision 2001 plan by the end of 1999.

Despite a super majority Republican Legislature that opposed virtually every executive initiative, the Gutierrez-Bordallo administration was successful in guiding the island through the rough waters of economic downturns throughout the region.

[8] Buildings on the island made of reinforced concrete fared well, as opposed to light metal-frame structures, which more often were completely destroyed.

[7] A complete island-wide power outage followed the typhoon; damage to the main electrical transmission and distribution system was estimated at USD16 million.

Strong waves washed away a few coastal roads in the northern portion of the island, leaving them temporarily closed.

The waves surpassed the seawall at Apra Harbor, damaging the road and infrastructure of the seaport; many boats were washed ashore after breaking from their moorings.

[10] In the 1998 General Election, Gutierrez-Bordallo faced the Republican team of Former Governor Joseph Franklin Ada and Senator Felix Perez Camacho.

Gutierrez and Madeleine Z. Bordallo, President William Jefferson Clinton visited Guam on November 23, 1998.

Thousands of Guamanians gathered on the field in front of the Ricardo J. Bordallo Governor's Complex to see President Clinton.

His second term in office was marked by political instability caused by the 1998 election challenges, a super majority Republican (12-3) Guam Legislature, an unsuccessful Recall Movement in 2000 after the Supreme court decision came out giving Gutierrez/Bordallo the win, the "rolling" power outages left behind by the Ada/Blas administration, the destruction of the island's infrastructure by Supertyphoons Chata'an, Paka, and Pongsona.

Gutierrez ran with Senator and former Superior Court of Guam Chief Justice Benjamin Cruz to be the Democratic Party candidate for governor in 2006.

The Gutierrez-Cruz team faced former Guam Delegate Robert A. Underwood and Senator Frank Aguon, Jr.

[14] In November, 2006, Governor Gutierrez was awarded the Gusi Peace Prize for political achievement in the Republic of the Philippines by president Gloria Macapagal Arroyo.

[16] In early April 2012, former Governor Carl Guiterrez announced that he would not run for congress representing Guam.

Gutierrez officially announced his bid to once again be the Governor of Guam, after losing the past 2 elections against the Republican Calvo-Tenorio administration.

Gutierrez selected former Guam Police Department chief Fred Bordallo as his running mate for the upcoming Democratic primaries.