Shavers apologizes ‘to any supporter who felt misled’

OAK HARBOR — Democratic state House candidate Clyde Shavers posted an apology to his website late Thursday night after his father publicly accused him of embellishing his military service and other aspects of his background.

“I would like to apologize to any supporter who felt misled by any statement I have made regarding my service record – this was never my intention,” Shavers said in a statement on his campaign website.

Shavers, 32, a Navy veteran and Yale law school graduate, is battling Republican state Rep. Greg Gilday in a key and expensive race in the 10th Legislative District, which includes Island County, north Snohomish County and part of Skagit County.

Earlier this week, the candidate’s father, Brett Shavers, wrote a three-page letter asserting his son never served as a submarine officer and provided it to his son’s opponent. Clyde Shavers previously stated he was a nuclear submarine officer on his website and in a primary mailer, though has since removed the statement from the website and omitted the claim from recent campaign materials.

In an emailed statement Tuesday, Shavers said his father’s letter was “all about politics” and “personally very painful to me.” A similar statement was posted to the campaign website Thursday, with the addition of the apology.

Shavers also noted he was an “attorney/lawyer” in a financial disclosure filing earlier this year, though he has not yet passed the bar exam. Shavers said there wasn’t another option to describe his work as a summer associate with the Seattle law firm Perkins Coie. He said he plans to take the bar exam next year.

Reached by phone on Friday, Shavers declined to elaborate on his statement on the website or his earlier statement.

As of Thursday evening, roughly a third of voters in the district had returned their ballots for Tuesday’s election.