Eyman gives Postman the cold shoulder

Seattle Times chief political reporter David Postman has a superb post today on his blog about Tim Eyman's duping of his own supporters:

Tim Eyman is misleading his supporters as he tries to raise money for himself and his initiative partners.

Last week the secretary of state's office said Eyman turned in 266,006 signatures for I-917, a car tax cutting measure. That's 34,347 fewer than he claimed he turned in earlier this month at the deadline for initiative petitions.

[...]

Maybe we should get to the bottom of it before Eyman takes money from supporters for what he claims is a successful petition drive.

His Web site repeatedly makes the claim that the initiative has qualified. And he says that means it's time for his supporters to reward him and his partners, the father/son team of Jack and Mike Fagan, for a job well done.

Eyman, who is once again shaking his electronic tin can and asking supporters for money for his "personal compensation fund" (Help Us Help Ourselves), neglected to say anything to them about the petition discrepancy.

That's so typical of Eyman, of course. He likes to leave his backers in the dark and not be open with them.

Eyman's only friends seem to be his greedy partners, the Fagans. Everyone else - his allies, his supporters, reporters, even Michael Dunmire - are just tools to be used, and abused in Eyman's pursuit of personal profit and fame:

Eyman would not talk to me, or apparently many other reporters, about I-917. He said by e-mail last night, "We're dealing exclusively with the Associated Press on this. We have nothing to add to what's already been reported by them."

How unsurprising.

Initiative 917 is still on thin ice. We're watching carefully to see what the Secretary of State's office says - and continuing preparations to fight it should it end up qualifying after all.