Stacia Huyler claims campaign being sabotaged

Election seasons are known for being heated. But District 24 candidate Stacia Huyler seems to be experiencing especially bizarre and scary occurrences.

Huyler’s strangest claim is that a drone flies around her neighborhood harassing her and her neighbors. While she isn’t sure if the device is targeting her, she said she has seen it fly very close to her home and right up to her windows. Regardless of whom it is targeting, it is invasive, she said.

Other forms of alleged harassment are more direct. Huyler said she’s been receiving letters full of graphic, personal attacks since she ran for mayor two years ago. Some have shown up at her parents’ home, causing them great emotional distress.

Huyler didn’t share the letters with the Beacon – she said they were too vulgar and sexually explicit to do so. In addition to the letters, Huyler said she’s received eight different magazine subscriptions, names of which she did not have on hand during our exchanges that she’s had to cancel. She believes the harasser is also responsible for those. Huyler said she took extensive legal action, handing over a packet of information plus her own fingerprints to the Warwick Police. She said she even attempted to involve State Police, but was referred back to Warwick Police.

“I believe the harasser is very mentally unstable and it's very concerning to me and my family because what comes next?” she said. “Will they snap? What are forms of harassment are they capable of? Stalking? Inflicting direct harm?”

Huyler’s “Warwick Watch” blog and Facebook page amplifies her voice throughout the city. She said the page attracts about 10,000 views a week and that most readers appreciate her work.

“When I go door to door, people say ‘I know who you are and thank you for what you’re doing,’” she said.

However, she believes the letter sender feels threatened by her work as a community activist.

Perhaps the least threatening of the incidents Huyler’s experienced is one involving her campaign signs. She claims to have personally witnessed them being stolen by her opponent Evan Shanley’s supporters, and said she filed a police report, which Warwick Police confirmed.

“I know it's someone from Shanley's inner circle,” she said. “A couple left his most recent fundraiser, pulled their car over, and started pulling my campaign signs off the lawns of my supporters.”

Shanley responded to the allegations, saying his supporters should leave Huyler’s signs alone – it takes courage to put oneself out there, plus signs cost money, he said. However, he added that he doesn’t think his supporters disturbed her signs in the first place.

“No one affiliated with my campaign has touched any of her signs… I’d certainly never support or encourage that,” he said.

Some of Shanley’s campaign signs have disappeared too, he said. He’s not sure if that’s a result of wind or theft, but recognizes that losing signs is unfortunate.

Shanley also has heard of the letters Huyler said she received. While claimed not to know their contents, he said he understands she’s taken them to be harassing and that it’s “terrible” for her, or anyone, to be personally attacked in that manner.