Editor,

I spoke with Rep. Shavers via phone before the primaries. I questioned his connection to this community. I asked about his Yale Coalition to End Homelessness. I asked why I could find nothing on the project, except for a blank LinkedIn page. Not a single picture, a single endorsement. Not one news article, nothing. He said after he left, there was no one to continue the coalition, it just died.

I asked why his own LinkedIn was essentially blank. He said he stays off social media. I asked him why in a community as small as ours I can not find one single person who will vouch for his connection to the community before he came here to run for the 10th District seat. I can’t find a single person who can say they so much as had a conversation with him as a private resident of our community. He responded by saying the 10th District was more than just Oak Harbor. When I stated I can’t find a single instance in Island County, he promised to connect me with someone who could say he was in fact a part of this community. As of this writing, I have received no such communication.

I will not vote for Rep. Shavers for the same reason I will be voting for his opponent, Carrie Kennedy and our other state Rep. Dave Paul. I know their connections to the community. I have seen them in the community. I know people who know them. They have a long and more importantly, verifiable connection to the community. I can ask them questions directly. I can have discussions with them about our community and I can openly disagree with them on policy. Our community deserves to be represented by members of our community. Our seats should not be open to individuals from other districts who hold political aspirations and see our district as easy to win.

The bar for me to support Rep. Shavers was extremely low. All I asked for was one person that is a member of this community to say they knew him to be a member of our island community before he ran for office. Just one person to say they worked with him on the Yale Coalition, or they received services from the Coalition.

It would have been so easy, but it never happened.

Andy Plumlee

Oak Harbor