Eyman subdued in latest email update
Time for another update on Tim Eyman's troubles with Initiative 917.
The right wing profiteer sent another (fundraising) email to his supporters late yesterday, in which he adopted a much more subdued tone. After getting whipped on conservative talk radio on Monday, Eyman has apparently realized that there are very few Washingtonians who agree with his absurd position. Even those on his side of the ideological divide.
Eyman did not accuse the Secretary of State's office of lying in his email update. Neither did he say anything further about I-917 petitions being "pilfered". Perhaps that's because Eyman was perfectly aware that he had turned in such a low number of signatures on July 7th and was just trying to throw up a smokescreen so it wouldn't be his fault.
It's a puzzle why he didn't collect a bigger cushion of signatures to ensure that I-917 qualified. He didn't get a big check from Dunmire in June and didn't spend much on paid signature gathering that month, either - though there is one expense to Citizen Solutions made on the last day of the month, close to $12,000.
Possibly what happened is that Eyman's signature count was off - by a lot - and he didn't realize it until it was too late. Not wanting to look like an idiot, he tried to create some kind of "proof" that he had 300,353 signatures by writing the figure down on a piece of paper, getting the Secretary of State's receptionist to stamp it, and then trying to use it to mislead the media. But if that was his gambit, he seems to have failed. Miserably.
In any case, Eyman's email basically contained the same information from my post last week (Eyman's Initiative 917 may be in limbo until the end of September).
We will apparently know this Friday whether Initiative 917 qualifies for the ballot by random sample - or doesn't, in which case, there will be a full count of each and every signature - which could, as I previously wrote, take until the end of September. Stay tuned to the Official Blog and Permanent Defense for updates.
The right wing profiteer sent another (fundraising) email to his supporters late yesterday, in which he adopted a much more subdued tone. After getting whipped on conservative talk radio on Monday, Eyman has apparently realized that there are very few Washingtonians who agree with his absurd position. Even those on his side of the ideological divide.
Eyman did not accuse the Secretary of State's office of lying in his email update. Neither did he say anything further about I-917 petitions being "pilfered". Perhaps that's because Eyman was perfectly aware that he had turned in such a low number of signatures on July 7th and was just trying to throw up a smokescreen so it wouldn't be his fault.
It's a puzzle why he didn't collect a bigger cushion of signatures to ensure that I-917 qualified. He didn't get a big check from Dunmire in June and didn't spend much on paid signature gathering that month, either - though there is one expense to Citizen Solutions made on the last day of the month, close to $12,000.
Possibly what happened is that Eyman's signature count was off - by a lot - and he didn't realize it until it was too late. Not wanting to look like an idiot, he tried to create some kind of "proof" that he had 300,353 signatures by writing the figure down on a piece of paper, getting the Secretary of State's receptionist to stamp it, and then trying to use it to mislead the media. But if that was his gambit, he seems to have failed. Miserably.
In any case, Eyman's email basically contained the same information from my post last week (Eyman's Initiative 917 may be in limbo until the end of September).
We will apparently know this Friday whether Initiative 917 qualifies for the ballot by random sample - or doesn't, in which case, there will be a full count of each and every signature - which could, as I previously wrote, take until the end of September. Stay tuned to the Official Blog and Permanent Defense for updates.
