Washington State GOP Won't Touch Eyman

Washingon Sate's new GOP chairman is Diane Tebelius, a tough Republican lawyer who really wants to be called chairman. The Stranger grilled her on her party's intent to support Tim Eyman's initiatives in November. Here was her reply:

Does your party support Tim Eyman's attempts to repeal the gay civil rights bill?
The party is taking no position publicly on any of the initiatives right now.

Do you see a way in which the Republican Party would come out against Eyman's repeal measures?
I don't see a way that they would come out against them. But I don't know that they would come out for them.

Rich backer Michael Dunmire dumps $50K into Eyman's PAC

PDC filings show that multimillionaire Michael Dunmire gave $50,000 to Tim Eyman's Voters Want More Choices political action committee last December. Eyman and his cohorts have not yet filed their financial reports for January 2006 with the PDC, but it's very likely that Dunmire made another sizable contribution last month to help prop Tim up.

Dunmire is also doubtless the unnamed donor who funded Eyman's "matching program" last month, one of Tim's gimmicks to squeeze more money out of his declining pool of contributors. Eyman is now mostly reliant on special interests (multimillionaires, the gambling industry) to bankroll his initiative factory.

Eyman attacks civil rights

On Monday, January 30th, Tim Eyman filed an initiative to overturn the recently passed HB 2661, which outlaws discrimination based on sexual orientation. Tim Eyman has truly established himself as an evil person:

He seeks to cripple the very institutions that form the foundation of our representative democracy.

He seeks to appeal to the people of the state under false pretenses, masquerading as a faux populist and distorting the truth, attempting to convince the electorate to stab itself in the back.

He seeks to destroy funding for our most precious and valued public services - services that make our communities livable, like police and fire protection, libraries and schools, parks and pools, and public works.

He seeks to make our society less safe and undermine our economy by wiping out government investments in transportation infrastructure.

And now he seeks to allow discrimination and inequality in Washington State.

Tim Eyman is a filthy, despicable creature. This organization, the Northwest Progressive Institute, and its Permanent Defense division, will not allow Tim Eyman to go unchallenged.

This organization will stand up not only to defend transportation funding, but it will also stand up to defend equality and civil rights.

Tim Eyman has been defeated before. He will be defeated again. Whether or not his measures get on the ballot this year, we will work to stop him. The fight against Eyman is a battle to save the future and the health of Washington State. We can and we will win it.