Tim Eyman hides from the public as NO on I‑1366 coalition continues to ramp up

The most dan­ger­ous place in Wash­ing­ton State is no longer between Tim Eyman and a tele­vi­sion cam­era, it seems.

The noto­ri­ous­ly brash ini­tia­tive prof­i­teer, who has in pre­vi­ous years been so eager to get on TV that he has crashed oppo­nents’ press con­fer­ences, has sud­den­ly become cam­era-shy, and is choos­ing to fire off email mis­sives from home rather than appear in pub­lic, where he might be asked uncom­fort­able questions.

On Mon­day, as read­ers of the Cas­ca­dia Advo­cate know, PDC staff released a report con­clud­ing that Tim Eyman broke Wash­ing­ton’s pub­lic dis­clo­sure law again three years ago when he qual­i­fied I‑517 to the bal­lot with a stealth sig­na­ture drive.

Eyman was invit­ed to appear at the Pub­lic Dis­clo­sure Com­mis­sion’s meet­ing yes­ter­day to speak in his defense, but nei­ther he nor his lawyer showed. The PDC vot­ed unan­i­mous­ly to refer the cas­es against him to Attor­ney Gen­er­al Bob Fer­gu­son for pros­e­cu­tion, and also asked Fer­gu­son to widen the scope of the investigation.

Then today, for the sec­ond week in a row, Eyman was a no-show at the stu­dios of KING5 Tele­vi­sion for a sched­uled debate on Ini­tia­tive 1366 with Fuse founder Aaron Ostrom (Fuse, like NPI, belongs to the coali­tion that is work­ing to defeat I‑1366, Tim Eyman’s most destruc­tive ini­tia­tive ever).

Appar­ent­ly, Eyman’s been get­ting a case of the cold feet. What else could explain his deci­sion to blow off KING5 and Ostrom not once, but twice?

Though it seems unlike­ly Eyman will ever show up to debate I‑1366 with Ostrom, the Fuse founder is call­ing on Eyman to resched­ule anyway.

“The vot­ers of Wash­ing­ton deserve to have an open and hon­est debate about the mer­its of Ini­tia­tive 1366,” Ostrom said in a state­ment released by Fuse.

“This mea­sure would lock in place our upside down tax sys­tem and make it impos­si­ble to close tax loop­holes to fund our schools. I chal­lenge Eyman to come out of hid­ing and show up for a tele­vised debate next week so that vot­ers can make an edu­cat­ed and informed deci­sion about how to vote on I‑1366.”

“Tim Eyman has ille­gal­ly filled his wal­let by pro­mot­ing ini­tia­tives with bom­bas­tic state­ments and out­ra­geous press stunts. Sud­den­ly, he’s avoid­ing the press and refus­ing to defend him­self or his lat­est self-serv­ing ini­tia­tive, 1366. With only three weeks left until vot­ing begins, Eyman is in hid­ing and knows he’s in deep legal trou­ble that could final­ly end his mil­lion-dol­lar ini­tia­tive business.”

Eyman also declined to talk to our region’s TV sta­tions ear­li­er this week after the PDC’s report was released. He has said noth­ing him­self about the find­ings, not even by email, though his lawyer Mark Lamb, who is him­self no stranger to con­tro­ver­sy, has released mul­ti­ple state­ments on Eyman’s behalf (also by email).

Eyman may be out of action, but we are rolling full steam ahead with our efforts to defeat I‑1366, in part­ner­ship with a long list of allies that includes Democ­rats and Repub­li­cans. Our aim is to bring togeth­er as many Wash­ing­to­ni­ans as pos­si­ble to stand togeth­er to reject the pol­i­tics of hostage-taking.

NO on I‑1366 now has a staff of three to facil­i­tate this impor­tant work, led by cam­paign man­ag­er Neil Beaver. The coali­tion con­tin­ues to enthu­si­as­ti­cal­ly wel­come indi­vid­u­als and orga­ni­za­tions to its ros­ter on a dai­ly basis.

We at NPI would like to extend our thanks to the Faith Action Net­work, AFT Wash­ing­ton, Com­mu­ni­ty Health Net­work of Wash­ing­ton, Chil­dren’s Alliance, State Sen­a­tor Andy Bil­lig, and State Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Mar­cus Ric­cel­li for recent­ly join­ing NO on I‑1366. We’re glad to have them all aboard.

If you would like to help defeat I‑1366, you can make a con­tri­bu­tion online, or pledge to vote no at the coali­tion’s web­site. We’ve only got a few weeks left to fin­ish pulling this cam­paign togeth­er, so any help you can pro­vide now is great­ly appre­ci­at­ed. Let’s keep them momen­tum building!

POSTSCRIPT: Eyman told the Seat­tle Post-Intel­li­gencer he’s try­ing to resched­ule with KING5, and send Pam Roach in his place, because the sta­tion refus­es to guar­an­tee that it would­n’t ask ques­tions about Eyman’s prob­lems with the PDC.

KING5 also has a sto­ry up about Eyman’s refusal to debate.