In an email, Eyman says:

Join us at the taxpayers’ victory celebration at the Bellevue Hilton (300 112th Ave SE) on election night (several other campaigns are going to be there too, making it much easier for all our supporters — having one big party is better than having lots of little ones). We’ll get there around 7:45 pm, polls close at 8:00 pm and our victory speech will be given at 8:05 pm.

In typical Eyman fashion, Tim makes it sound like he was responsible for creating a grand taxpayers’ victory celebration that other campaigns are participating in. The reality is, he’s crashing the biggest Republican Election Night party in King County, just as he has for the past several years.

What we want to know is, why didn’t he take advantage of  his friends at BP, Shell, Tesoro, ConocoPhillips, Bank of America, JPMorgan Chase, Wells Fargo, and get them to pony up some moolah for a nice big party? What’s the use of having wealthy corporations as allies if they can’t at least underwrite a rockin’ party?

Days after the AWB itself loaned $60,000 to “Citizens for Responsible Spending” (which is not run by or for any “citizens”), a new onslaught of checks suddenly began arriving from wealthy corporations.

Since the beginning of the month, Tesoro and ConocoPhillips have each put up another $25,000, while BP contributed $35,000, bringing its aggregate total to $100,000 and making it the single largest corporate donor to Tim Eyman’s assault on our cherished tradition of majority rule.

Banking giant JPMorgan Chase, which acquired WaMu from the FDIC in a hastily-arranged fire sale only two years ago, sent in $30,000 at about the same time. Chase is the fourth Wall Street bank to contribute to I-1053 (the others are Bank of America, Wells Fargo, and USBank).

“It’s ironic that so many Wall Street banks, which nearly collapsed under the weight of all the bad bets they made, are trying to wreck our state government so it can’t work for us after being bailed out by the federal government,” said NPI Executive Director Andrew Villeneuve. “Their shamelessness knows no bounds. Let’s be clear: This is about wanton, unchecked greed. It’s as simple as that. ”

An updated analysis by NPI has found that a whopping ninety one percent of the money behind I-1053 came from a corporation. Only nine percent came from individuals, and some of the individual donors are affiliated with corporations that donated.

The analysis found that:

• $315,000 came from big oil companies,
• $305,589.89 came from corporate trade groups and lobbies like the Farm Bureau, Realtors, Bankers Association, and the Association of Washington Business,
• $93,000 came from timber and pulp companies,
• $57,500 came from Wall Street banks,
• $65,000 came from real estate developers like Kemper Freeman Jr./Martin Selig,
• $114,968.00 came from other companies large and small, including Alaska Airlines, Philip Morris USA, Schnitzer Steel, Liberty Mutual Group, and Simplot.
• Only $91,123.40 came from individuals.

A breakdown is available at StopGreed.org.

“Were it not for the likes of BP, Bank of America, Tesoro, JPMorgan Chase, ConocoPhillips, and Simpson/Green Diamond Resource Co., we would not be voting on Initiative 1053. This is not a citizen’s initiative. It’s a cold, caclulated attempt to trick we the people of Washington into giving up our sovereignty,” Villeneuve said. “The corporate lobbyists behind 1053 want to tighten their grip on our Capitol. Under this measure, all they have to do is persuade seventeen of Washington’s forty nine senators to side with them and they can defeat any bill that would end their special tax breaks. That’s not democratic, fair, or constitutional.”

Learn more about why Initiative 1053 is a bad idea.

Eyman wrote: “When Olympia sidesteps a law like I-960 (which voters approved in 2007), they count on the citizens to not have the energy or enthusiasm to roll that boulder back up the mountain again.  They count on us to give up — to throw up our hands and say ‘you can’t beat city hall.’”

Reporters with sharp eyes might have noticed there was a typo in that paragraph: the word “citizens” should be “corporations”.

After all, corporations like BP (big profits… bad people… yes, that BP) are the only reason Initiative 1053 is on the ballot.

New PDC reports filed by Tim Eyman’s campaign committee for June 2010 reveal that a massive influx of corporate cash helped the Mukilteo profiteer buy the signatures he needed to get on the ballot during the final few weeks of initiative season.

Yesterday evening, the NPI Advocate broke the news that BP – the polluting oil giant responsible for the biggest environmental disaster in American history – is one of the top donors to I-1053. BP shelled out a combined $65,000 to two I-1053 political action committees in June… Voters Want More Choices and “Citizens for Responsible Spending”.

Other corporations that ponied up for I-1053 include Bank of America, USBank, Alaska Airlines, Sierra Pacific Industries, Green Diamond Resource Co., Tesoro, Equilon, Liberty Mutual, Plum Creek, Darigold, and ConocoPhillips. Several trade groups, including the Washington Oil Marketers Association, Washington Farm Bureau, Washington Restaurant Association, and Washington Bankers Association, are also principal donors to the campaign.

“It’s clear from these June reports that corporate lobbyists have taken over for Michael Dunmire as Tim Eyman’s sugar daddy,” said NPI Executive Director Andrew Villeneuve in a news release sent out to the traditional media.

“For years, Eyman has blasted ‘big business’ as an enemy of the people and an obstacle to his initiatives. Now, he’s rolling in their cash. How ironic.”

“And yet, it is fitting that Tim Eyman and many of America’s biggest and most irresponsible corporations are now joined at the hip,” Villeneuve observed. “They’re both united by a shared vice: Greed. At a time when we need to be pulling together and strengthening our common wealth to ensure our economy recovers, they are trying to put themselves ahead of everybody else.”

Oil companies already receive huge federal subsidies and banks have benefited from the Troubled Asset Relief Program, otherwise known as the bank bailout.

“The corporations that are backing Tim Eyman continue to take advantage of our federal common wealth whilst writing big checks to an initiative that would prevent our Legislature from acting to protect public services here in this Washington,” Villeneuve said. “They have a shameless double standard. They’ll take as much as they can for themselves, but they don’t want to pay their dues.”

NPI and Permanent Defense recently launched a new website to expose the corporations that are trying to make a quick buck by conning the people of Washington into voting for ill-conceived initiatives that would weaken or privatize public services.

This website, StopGreed.org, includes a Rogues’ Gallery profiling the corporations that have sunk the most money into five initiatives that will appear on this November’s ballot. The Gallery will be updated accordingly to reflect the latest PDC reports this week and in the weeks to come.

The BIAW will go first. They’re expected to drop off boxes of petitions on Wednesday morning for their scheme to destroy publicly administered industrial insurance, which protects workers while they’re on the job. Metaphorically, the initiative is akin to a missile designed to blow up the Department of Labor and Industries, tasked by law with ensuring that businesses be ready to help their workers who get injured on the job.

The beverage industry will follow forty eight hours later, submitting signatures on Friday for a measure  that would repeal several of the revenue increases passed by the state Legislature back in the spring.

They’ll be joined that day by operatives working for two retailers (Odom Holdings and Young’s Markets) who will be submitting signatures for an initiative to close down the state’s liquor stores and deregulate the selling of hard spirits. Costco Wholesale, which is running its own similar initiative, has already submitted its signatures.

Finally, our old nemesis Tim Eyman is due in on Friday to turn in petitions for Initiative 1053, his redo of Initiative 960 from 2007. It would unconstitutionally reimpose a legislative veto over budget and fiscal decisions, allowing just one third of lawmakers in one house of the Legislature to block any fee or revenue increase from passing.

This looks to be the toughest and most difficult autumn in memory, with just one shy of a half-dozen ill-conceived measures to defeat. We’ve certainly got our work cut out for us. In the days, weeks, and months ahead, Permanent Defense will be working to build a united front against all of these right wing initiatives.

Initiative 985 contained a provision that would have redirected revenue from city red-light cameras to a statewide road-building fund. However, as Eyman himself made clear during the campaign, the real intent of the provision was to discourage cities from installing red-light cameras at all.

Data compiled by Permanent Defense from the Snohomish County general election canvass shows that the people of Mukilteo do not agree that red-light cameras are a civic menace. They overwhelmingly rejected I-985 in November 2008, 57% to 42%. Nineteen of the city’s twenty precincts (including the precinct Eyman lives in!) were firmly opposed to the measure, while only one was in favor. The total vote for I-985 was 4,417; the total vote against I-985 was 5,974.

To qualify his citywide initiative to the August 17th primary election ballot, Eyman needs to obtain valid signatures from at least 1,804 residents of Mukilteo.

Since all he needs to do is find about half of the people in Mukilteo who voted for I-985, we can expect that he’ll be able to qualify his measure for the ballot. But if history is any indication, Eyman may simply be setting himself up for another defeat at the hands of his neighbors.

Consequently, Eyman’s fundraising has been so anemic that Eyman has once again been compelled to loan his initiative factory money. According to the April Schedule L, Eyman loaned Voters Want More Choices $30,000 on April 24th, 2010. Two days later (April 26th), he wrote a check to Citizen Solutions (who employ mercenary petitioners on Eyman’s behalf) for the exact same amount. Five days later, on April 29th, Eyman loaned Voters Want More Choices an additional $20,000. He wrote Citizen Solutions another check for $25,000 the following day (April 30th)..

Considering that Eyman still has loans outstanding from I-1033, it seems unlikely he could continue to self-fund his own signature drive.

Perhaps he’s decided to buy himself as many signatures as he can whilst hoping that Dunmire eventually comes through for him.

But if that’s his game plan, he hasn’t bothered to clue in his supporters.

The ink is still not dry on the 2010 supplemental budget – which has yet to be signed into law by Governor Gregoire – but already initiative profiteer Tim Eyman has filed a series of initiatives to wipe out the new revenue it contains.

Some news reports are lending the impression that Eyman intends to seriously qualify these initiatives, or a later initiative based on the eight he filed today. In reality, there is no evidence that these initiatives are anything other than symbolic. Eyman himself has admitted to his supporters that the signature drive for Initiative 1053, his preexisting scheme, is not moving at a pace that would ensure success. The real reason Eyman filed these initiatives is that he wants his face on the evening news and his name in the newspaper. It’s all about publicity.

Industry lobbyists have made noises about wanting to repeal some of the consumption taxes in the 2010 supplemental budget, but if they want to force public votes on parts of the budget, they don’t need Eyman’s help to do that.

Individuals with knowledge of Eyman’s activities have confirmed to Permanent Defense that the Mukilteo profiteer is once again hiring his pals Roy Ruffino and Eddie Agrazarm, who run “Citizen Solutions”, to orchestrate the paid signature gathering drive for Initiative 1053. Coincidentally, Eyman has issued two appeals for money to his supporters this week. Eyman wrote today:

To be successful, we need everyone — from now until July 2nd — to focus and concentrate on ways to get signatures and raise funds. Everything else is a distant, distant second.

I’m calling and meeting with supporters every day and Jack & Mike are busting their butts processing petitions and checks and credit card donations. Raising funds for signature gathering is the most important. It’s the lifeblood of this effort.

Partially-filled and fully-filled petitions are arriving every day now in our post office box in Spokane but not at a pace to ensure success. We’ve got to pick up the pace on signatures and money.

Apparently, Eyman’s patron Michael Dunmire hasn’t written his annual check yet. Last year, Dunmire paid off the loans Eyman took out for Initiative 985 and then provided several hundred thousand dollars for Initiative 1033. So far, however, he has not refilled the coffers for Eyman’s “Voters Want More Choices” committee, even though he is a co-sponsor of I-1053.

The Initiative 1053 petition contains the words “Tougher to Raise Taxes” at the top. It naturally fails to acknowledge that giving a minority of the Legislature veto power over the majority is undemocratic.

Activists who see right wing signature gatherers out collecting signatures for I-1053 are urged to report their experience to Permanent Defense so we can better track Eyman’s signature drive.

According to elections officials, a check of petition signatures submitted in support of the proposal has shown that the measure meets constitutional requirements for a minimum of 224,880 valid voter signatures. The measure will appear on the November 6th General Election ballot.

Initiative 960 would require two-thirds legislative approval or voter approval for tax increases, legislative approval of fee increases, certain published information on tax-increasing bills, and advisory votes on taxes enacted without voter approval. The official ballot summary on Initiative 960 reads, “This measure would require either a two-thirds vote in each house of the legislature or voter approval for all tax increases. New or increased fees would require prior legislative approval. An advisory vote would be required on any new or increased taxes enacted by the legislature without voter approval. The office of financial management would be required to publish cost information and information regarding legislators’ voting records on bills imposing or increasing taxes or fees.”

Sponsors of Initiative 960 submitted a total of 314,504 petition signatures to the Secretary of State. Election officials conducted a random sample of 9,607 signatures, of which 8,410 were valid signatures – 1,197 were determined invalid. Signatures are invalid if the signer is not a registered voter or if he or she signed more than once.

The petition was checked using the “random sample” process authorized by state law. Under the process, a statistically valid percentage of the signatures are selected at random and checked against voter registration records. A mathematical formula is then applied to the results to obtain a projected rate of invalidation.

Election officials examined 9,607 (a 3 percent sample) on Initiative 960. From that inspection, it was determined that the measure had an invalidation rate of 17.1 percent.

There is a possibility that I-960 will still not go before voters in November, if the state Supreme Court accepts for review the case filed by Futurewise and SEIU 775 and decides for the plaintiffs. But the likelihood is that I-960 will be on the ballot, and we will be doing everything we can to ensure that it fails.