Editor,

The Voter Interests Project does not endorse candidates. We do, however, respond when we are referenced in a mischaracterization such as David Freed made in his letter in the Sep. 30, 2023, edition of the Whidbey News-Times.

Mr. Freed wrote: “Allen McPheeters interviewed both candidates [for mayor] through his VIP [sic] Voter Interests Project, where his neighbor Ronnie Wright clearly says he does not have experience dealing with large budgets like Oak Harbor’s.”

Below is the transcript of the relevant portion of our interview:

McPHEETERS: You might be, among the four people running for this office, the one who has the most experience with budgets. What’s the largest budget you’ve been involved with in any kind of organization?

WRIGHT: It’s been in excess of ten million dollars, that’s for sure. It still doesn’t even rise to the threshold of— well, I mean it’s close. I mean the city budget is very large, and as you know, as we’ve— I sat through a workshop yesterday for the city. It was a city council workshop and went through all that. But I mean I have, you know, a very broad and vast experience in working with budgets and different types of accounting standards, whether it be governmental accounting standards (or GASB) or FASB, or financial accounting standards boards, which is non-governmental. So, I’m very well versed there. I have a lot of experience in doing that and feel very confident in that. I’m definitely your guy that’s going to sit down and analyze the numbers.

Readers should draw their own conclusions. We recommend readers watch our interviews with both Mr. Wright and Mr. Hoffmire on our YouTube page (https://youtube.com/@voterinterests). The interviews are roughly half an hour each and should give the viewers an idea of the policies and experience of both men.

Allen McPheeters

Executive director, The Voter Interests Project

Oak Harbor