Offering frequent news and analysis from the majestic Evergreen State and beyond, The Cascadia Advocate is the Northwest Progressive Institute's unconventional perspective on world, national, and local politics.

Thursday, February 14, 2008

BREAKING: Tim Eyman slammed with new public disclosure complaint

Our friend Steve Zemke over at MajorityRules Blog tells NPI that he has just filed a complaint with the Public Disclosure Commission this morning against Tim Eyman for egregious violations of Washington State's campaign finance law.

Considering Eyman's long history of lying and breaking the rules, he had this latest complaint coming to him. Why can't he just follow the law like he's supposed to?
This morning MajorityRulesBlog filed an official compliant with the Washington State Public Disclosure Commission regarding the lack of filing of campaign contributiuon and expenditure reports for Initiative 985.

In a phone call this morning I confirmed with the PDC that there was no error on their part - no reports have been received by them from Eyman besides a C1pc on initial formation of a committee entitled Reduce Congestion.org on January 3, 2008. ReduceCongestion.org has not updated this report with any additional information or reported any contributions or expenditures as of today, Feb 14, 2008. The deadline for filing Jan reports is Feb 10, 2008.

Yet they have sent mailings to people soliciting money, have a website up asking for money on behalf of ReduceCongestion.org which they secured on Dec. 18, 2007 , and are sending out e-mail asking for money.
NPI's Permanent Defense, founded six years ago to fight right wing initiatives and oppose Tim Eyman, can confirm that Eyman has sent out over a dozen e-mail appeals to supporters since the beginning of January asking for contributions to Initiative 985. Eyman said on February 4th that he was sending out petitions in the mail for the initiative.

Somebody had to pay for those petitions. Who was it?

The public has no way of finding out because Eyman and his associates aren't filing their reports like they're supposed to.

This isn't the first time Eyman & Co. have missed deadlines. Almost four years ago, in 2004, our friends David Goldstein and Kelly Fox (of the Washington State Firefighters) joined Steve in filing a complaint over Eyman's delinquent reporting. Eyman made excuses and the PDC excused Eyman, allowing him to escape without penalty even though the PDC agreed the law had been violated.

Eyman's excuse then? That their treasurer had been hospitalized.

What is it going to be this time? "Sorry, we fell behind. The truth is, we just don't care about following the rules. We think we're above everyone else."

That would be the honest answer.

Steve's complaint addresses the PDC's past tolerance, noting:
[I]t is clear that Mr. Eyman and his associates have a reputation for blatantly disregarding the public disclosure law of Washington State. It is an understatement to say that the Public Disclosure Commission has treated Mr. Eyman and his committees with extreme patience and lenience in dismissing many past complaints. This generosity has not deterred Mr. Eyman and his associates from continuing to break the law.
Steve is also calling for a full audit and investigation of Eyman and all his committees, including Voters Want More Choices and Help Us Help Taxpayers, which have transferred or pledged money to Eyman's ReduceCongestion PAC. While it's hard to see the PDC taking that step, given their willingness to let Eyman off the hook in the past, it's definitely time for a complete audit of Eyman's initiative factory.

Comments:

OpenID RPope98155 said...

Timmy got his January 2008 reports filed today, February 15, 2008. Deadline was actually February 11, since the 10th was a Sunday. So Timmy is 4 days late. Timmy's treasurer will probably give a lame excuse, and the PDC will send out a letter closing the case, saying that Timmy should have filed on time, needs to file on time in the future, and take no further action.

-- Richard Pope

February 15, 2008 11:03 PM  

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