A new workweek has just begun, and with it has come yet another electronic Tim Eyman missive denigrating the opposition, brashly predicting victory in November for Initiative 1366, and of course, asking for money (“there are no limits on how much can be given,” as Tim likes to remind his followers in his boilerplate pitch).
Like real estate tycoon Donald Trump (who he shares a middle name with), Tim Eyman loves to use his computer keyboard to sling putdowns. But since he doesn’t have any wish to join social media networks, his preferred delivery mechanism remains email, as opposed to Twitter, which Donald Trump frequents.
“I’m very proud to work with a heroic team of leaders and supporters who work really hard each year to give the voters a greater voice in their government,” Eyman’s email begins, without crediting or naming anyone in particular.
He goes on to say:
In Sunday’s Tacoma News Tribune, there was a NO 1366 column. It’s [sic] opening line is hysterical:
“Tim Eyman has been a one-man wrecking ball in our state, and his latest initiative takes his exploits to a whole new level”.
Our opponents are not very bright. They constantly ignore what the voters have clearly said over the past 22 years and instead spend their time obsessing over lil ol’ me. I don’t have any special powers.
It’s certainly true that Tim doesn’t have any special powers. But he does have the backing of a handful of extremely wealthy benefactors like Clyde Holland, Kemper Freeman Jr., Faye Garneau, Suzie Burke, Kenneth Fisher, and Robert Rotella. And that’s worth a whole lot, because the United States Supreme Court has held that money is equivalent to speech — meaning some people possess the ability to speak very loudly and influence elections, simply because they happen to be rich.
Tellingly, last year, when Eyman didn’t have commitments from his wealthy benefactors to fund a signature drive, he didn’t get on the ballot at all. This year, he was the recipient of over a million dollars in contributions, and he used some of that money to acquire the signatures he needed to force a vote on I‑1366.
It always makes me laugh when I hear Eyman say that we (his opponents) don’t trust the voters and don’t listen to the voters. It is Tim Eyman who doesn’t listen and who doesn’t want reporters to look at the big picture.
The truth is, Tim Eyman ignores every vote of the people he doesn’t like.
It was the people of urban King, Pierce, and Snohomish counties who voted to create Sound Transit in 1996 and then empower Sound Transit in 2008 to further expand Link light rail, Sounder commuter rail, and ST Express bus service.
If Eyman respected those votes, he wouldn’t have tried to repeatedly destroy Sound Transit and stop it from building the light rail system the people told him to build with Initiatives 776 (2002) and 1125 (2011).
It was the people of Washington who created the Public Disclosure Commission and Washington’s public disclosure law all those years ago with Initiative 276 — the very same law that Tim has repeatedly violated with impunity for years.
It was the people of Washington who have consistently chosen Democrats like Gary Locke, Chris Gregoire, and Jay Inslee to govern our state for the entirety of Eyman’s career — not Eyman’s friends John Carlson, Dino Rossi, and Rob McKenna.
If Tim Eyman truly cared about the voters’ will, he’d show a little more respect for the democratically-elected leaders of our state. But instead, he resorts to petty, childish name calling. For years, Eyman denigrated Governor Gregoire as “Queen Christine”. More recently, Eyman called Jay Inslee “a lying whore”.
It was the people of Washington who have repeatedly voted to require the state to lower class size, as well as improve pay for our state’s hardworking teachers, with Initiatives 728, 732, and more recently, 1351. To our knowledge, Eyman has never called on the Legislature to implement those initiatives and carry out the voters’ will.
And it was the people of Washington who defeated Initiative 601’s sibling Initiative 602 in 1993 and approved HJR 4204 in 2007. I‑602 was an attempt to require a three-fourths vote of the Legislature to raise revenue; HJR 4204 lowered the threshold for passage of school levies from a three-fifths vote to a majority vote.
Tim Eyman doesn’t ever talk about the failure of I‑602 in 1993 or the passage of HJR 4204 in 2007, because those votes contradict his narrative. Having to acknowledge them would mess up his I‑1366 sales pitch.
The truth is often inconvenient for Tim… that’s why he fibs and fabricates so often. In every campaign, Eyman tries to create a self-fulfilling prophecy. It’s why he pumps out email after email projecting an air of confidence and attempting to portray his opposition as confused, crazy, dejected, or unnerved.
In this campaign, Tim is facing an opposition coalition that is getting stronger and more diverse by the week. Eyman’s list of opponents gone bonkers now includes the Seattle Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce, the Washington Roundtable ( a nonprofit, public policy organization comprised of senior executives from major private sector employers throughout Washington State), the Alzheimers Association, the Association of Manufactured Homeowners, The Seattle Times, The Spokesman-Review of Spokane, and The News Tribune of Tacoma.
That’s in addition to AARP Washington State, the League of Women Voters, the Children’s Alliance, Catholic Community Services of Washington, OneAmerica Votes, the Mainstream Republicans of Washington State, the Washington State Democratic Party, the Washington State Labour Council, AFL-CIO, NAMI Washington, Washington Conservation Voters, Faith Action Network, and dozens more elected leaders, organizations, and individuals.
Who is Eyman campaigning with? So far, just a handful of extreme Republican state legislators, like Pam Roach, Doug Ericksen, Cary Condotta, and Ed Orcutt (who are lending their names to the op-eds Eyman is ghostwriting) and a fringe gun enthusiast group here and there. That’s pretty much it.
Only extremists are campaigning for I‑1366, because I‑1366 is a coercive, mean-spirited initiative that would eviscerate our state’s vital public services unless the Legislature bows to the will of Eyman and his wealthy benefactors and sabotages our Constitution’s majority vote requirement.
The NO on I‑1366 coalition, on the other hand, is broad and diverse. It consists of a wide array of people and organizations who reject the politics of hostage-taking. And it is highly motivated to defend the values and principles that Washington was founded on one hundred and twenty-six years ago.
Join us in defending our Constitution and cherished tradition of majority rule. This autumn, vote NO on Tim Eyman’s I‑1366.
Monday, October 12th, 2015
Scandal-plagued Tim Eyman churns out new email jeering at his growing list of opponents
A new workweek has just begun, and with it has come yet another electronic Tim Eyman missive denigrating the opposition, brashly predicting victory in November for Initiative 1366, and of course, asking for money (“there are no limits on how much can be given,” as Tim likes to remind his followers in his boilerplate pitch).
Like real estate tycoon Donald Trump (who he shares a middle name with), Tim Eyman loves to use his computer keyboard to sling putdowns. But since he doesn’t have any wish to join social media networks, his preferred delivery mechanism remains email, as opposed to Twitter, which Donald Trump frequents.
“I’m very proud to work with a heroic team of leaders and supporters who work really hard each year to give the voters a greater voice in their government,” Eyman’s email begins, without crediting or naming anyone in particular.
He goes on to say:
It’s certainly true that Tim doesn’t have any special powers. But he does have the backing of a handful of extremely wealthy benefactors like Clyde Holland, Kemper Freeman Jr., Faye Garneau, Suzie Burke, Kenneth Fisher, and Robert Rotella. And that’s worth a whole lot, because the United States Supreme Court has held that money is equivalent to speech — meaning some people possess the ability to speak very loudly and influence elections, simply because they happen to be rich.
Tellingly, last year, when Eyman didn’t have commitments from his wealthy benefactors to fund a signature drive, he didn’t get on the ballot at all. This year, he was the recipient of over a million dollars in contributions, and he used some of that money to acquire the signatures he needed to force a vote on I‑1366.
It always makes me laugh when I hear Eyman say that we (his opponents) don’t trust the voters and don’t listen to the voters. It is Tim Eyman who doesn’t listen and who doesn’t want reporters to look at the big picture.
The truth is, Tim Eyman ignores every vote of the people he doesn’t like.
It was the people of urban King, Pierce, and Snohomish counties who voted to create Sound Transit in 1996 and then empower Sound Transit in 2008 to further expand Link light rail, Sounder commuter rail, and ST Express bus service.
If Eyman respected those votes, he wouldn’t have tried to repeatedly destroy Sound Transit and stop it from building the light rail system the people told him to build with Initiatives 776 (2002) and 1125 (2011).
It was the people of Washington who created the Public Disclosure Commission and Washington’s public disclosure law all those years ago with Initiative 276 — the very same law that Tim has repeatedly violated with impunity for years.
It was the people of Washington who have consistently chosen Democrats like Gary Locke, Chris Gregoire, and Jay Inslee to govern our state for the entirety of Eyman’s career — not Eyman’s friends John Carlson, Dino Rossi, and Rob McKenna.
If Tim Eyman truly cared about the voters’ will, he’d show a little more respect for the democratically-elected leaders of our state. But instead, he resorts to petty, childish name calling. For years, Eyman denigrated Governor Gregoire as “Queen Christine”. More recently, Eyman called Jay Inslee “a lying whore”.
It was the people of Washington who have repeatedly voted to require the state to lower class size, as well as improve pay for our state’s hardworking teachers, with Initiatives 728, 732, and more recently, 1351. To our knowledge, Eyman has never called on the Legislature to implement those initiatives and carry out the voters’ will.
And it was the people of Washington who defeated Initiative 601’s sibling Initiative 602 in 1993 and approved HJR 4204 in 2007. I‑602 was an attempt to require a three-fourths vote of the Legislature to raise revenue; HJR 4204 lowered the threshold for passage of school levies from a three-fifths vote to a majority vote.
Tim Eyman doesn’t ever talk about the failure of I‑602 in 1993 or the passage of HJR 4204 in 2007, because those votes contradict his narrative. Having to acknowledge them would mess up his I‑1366 sales pitch.
The truth is often inconvenient for Tim… that’s why he fibs and fabricates so often. In every campaign, Eyman tries to create a self-fulfilling prophecy. It’s why he pumps out email after email projecting an air of confidence and attempting to portray his opposition as confused, crazy, dejected, or unnerved.
In this campaign, Tim is facing an opposition coalition that is getting stronger and more diverse by the week. Eyman’s list of opponents gone bonkers now includes the Seattle Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce, the Washington Roundtable ( a nonprofit, public policy organization comprised of senior executives from major private sector employers throughout Washington State), the Alzheimers Association, the Association of Manufactured Homeowners, The Seattle Times, The Spokesman-Review of Spokane, and The News Tribune of Tacoma.
That’s in addition to AARP Washington State, the League of Women Voters, the Children’s Alliance, Catholic Community Services of Washington, OneAmerica Votes, the Mainstream Republicans of Washington State, the Washington State Democratic Party, the Washington State Labour Council, AFL-CIO, NAMI Washington, Washington Conservation Voters, Faith Action Network, and dozens more elected leaders, organizations, and individuals.
Who is Eyman campaigning with? So far, just a handful of extreme Republican state legislators, like Pam Roach, Doug Ericksen, Cary Condotta, and Ed Orcutt (who are lending their names to the op-eds Eyman is ghostwriting) and a fringe gun enthusiast group here and there. That’s pretty much it.
Only extremists are campaigning for I‑1366, because I‑1366 is a coercive, mean-spirited initiative that would eviscerate our state’s vital public services unless the Legislature bows to the will of Eyman and his wealthy benefactors and sabotages our Constitution’s majority vote requirement.
The NO on I‑1366 coalition, on the other hand, is broad and diverse. It consists of a wide array of people and organizations who reject the politics of hostage-taking. And it is highly motivated to defend the values and principles that Washington was founded on one hundred and twenty-six years ago.
Join us in defending our Constitution and cherished tradition of majority rule. This autumn, vote NO on Tim Eyman’s I‑1366.
# Written by Andrew Villeneuve :: 2:09 PM
Categories: Elections
Tags: Permanent Defense, WA-Ballot
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