Editor,
Regarding Judy Smith’s Aug. 19 letter: “Council candidate should explain …”, here’s more about Barbara Armes’ campaign for Oak Harbor City Council.
In early July, I was banned from Ms. Armes’ Facebook page by her campaign manager, Richard MacQuarrie. I told Ms. Armes this; she called back and assured me that she had spoken with him and that he would unblock me.
On July 16, MacQuarrie responded to me, saying: “… you called both candidates, but didn’t ask them the questions you asked me / you just CRIED that you were blocked … you are just interested in being a TROLL” (caps added).
Note: the other campaign MacQuarrie is managing is Fred Wilmot’s for Oak Harbor School Board, and I’m still blocked from both candidates’ FB pages.
At a July 25 Oak Harbor candidates’ forum, I asked Ms. Armes about this, including where she knew MacQuarrie from.
Barbara played both the victim and the hero: she said she hooked up with him because she couldn’t find anyone else to help on her campaign; but she also said she enlisted his help because she felt sorry for Richard … but now she was having nothing to do with him – except he still controls her Facebook page (and maybe her campaign?) against her will!
Voters take note: Ms. Armes also told me she voted for Janet St. Clair (Dem.), not Tim Hazelo; and for Sheriff Felici, not the Island County Republican’s favored candidate, Lane Campbell.
In all her explaining, she never said where she met MacQuarrie. Did they meet while she was working on his 2022 campaign for County Treasurer? Or maybe they hooked up when Richard was on the Island County Republican Party executive committee?
And finally … according to a U.S. Navy “Sept. 2017 Special and General Courts-Martial” webpage, a “Petty Officer Richard W. MacQuarrie, pled guilty … to stalking and fraternization.” He was sentenced to confinement, and was being “processed for … separation.”
“Oh, what a tangled web they weave when the (supposedly ‘non-partisan’) Island County Republicans practice to deceive.”
David Freed
Clinton
