Tag Archives: Eyman Plays the Victim

A reminder that Tim Eyman’s problems are self-inflicted

In the CourtsStatements & Advisories

This morning, Tim Eyman announced in an email to his followers that his marriage is ending and he intends to file for bankruptcy. The disgraced initiative promoter blamed Attorney General Bob Ferguson for his personal problems, characterizing the state’s attempt to hold him accountable for his lawbreaking as “the most intense, soul-crushing government litigation against a private individual in state history.”

Northwest Progressive Institute Founder and Executive Director Andrew Villeneuve — who has almost seventeen years of experience organizing opposition to Eyman’s initiatives — noted that Eyman’s problems are all self-inflicted.

“Tim Eyman has been in politics long enough to understand our system of public disclosure, which was created when the people of Washington approved Initiative 276 back in the 1970s,” said Villeneuve.

“Even after getting into trouble early on in his career as a purveyor of destructive initiatives, he has continued to willfully and repeatedly violate our public disclosure laws… including in 2012, when he used money donated for one initiative to qualify another without asking his donors’ permission or even telling them what he was doing.”

“And he doesn’t appear to feel any remorse over this. He’s only sorry that he got caught.”

“It’s bizarre that Eyman is complaining about this case taking so long, because his opposition is equally frustrated that we haven’t gotten to the trial yet. What he is not telling his followers or the press is that his actions are the reason for the long timeframe. It was his choice to make stonewalling in the extreme his legal defense strategy.”

“Read the many briefs filed by the state’s attorneys over the past few years, which describe in excruciating detail their repeated and patient efforts to obtain documents from Eyman. Getting Eyman to turn over any records at all has been extremely difficult, both before and since the lawsuit was filed. To compel Eyman’s cooperation, the courts have held him in contempt, but even that hasn’t prompted Eyman and his co-defendants to produce records in a timely fashion.”

“Eyman has chosen to resist accountability at all costs. Today, it’s apparent those costs are very high and very painful indeed. Eyman would like us all to feel sorry for him, but he still won’t accept responsibility for his own behavior.”

“Thankfully, Attorney General Ferguson is committed to seeing this case through despite Eyman’s stonewalling, and we appreciated that. Justice needs to be served.”

Tim Eyman’s desperation is showing

Rethinking and ReframingStatements & Advisories

This afternoon, Tim Eyman sent out a fourth consecutive email begging for money and instructing his followers to send messages of condemnation to NPI’s founder, Andrew Villeneuve, and Olympia City Council candidate Brian Tomlinson. Andrew composed the following statement in response.

After all these years, it’s kinda funny that we have suddenly become the object of Tim’s attention. His desperation is showing. We simply pointed out that the gears of his initiative factory cannot turn without cash from a wealthy benefactor, something we’ve said previously on many occasions. If you read his emails – which he claims to have carbon copied to the press and to lawmakers – you’ll notice he does not even attempt to refute what we’re saying. That’s because he knows he can’t. If he tried, he’d be contradicting his own reporting to the PDC.

So instead, he’s playing the victim. Trying to make it look like we’re picking on him. According to Eyman, we are “arrogant” and “hate-filled” and our reports on his activities amount to “gloating”. (Other nouns and adjectives Eyman has used include: anger, spite, negativity, ugliness, vile, mocking).

And, of course, Eyman describes his own followers as “coming back with grace and good humor”. That’s an interesting choice of words, considering we have received several obscenity-laden emails from Eyman followers, some of whom can’t even spell their hero’s name correctly. Oddly enough, Tim hasn’t shared those.

Eyman has also described his supporters as passionate. That’s a characterization that my team and I can agree with, and respect. We’re passionate too: passionate about protecting Washington’s common wealth, our quality of life, and our tradition of majority rule, which has served us well since statehood.

We believe Tim knows full well that we try to practice what we preach at NPI. We do not publish people’s private contact information online for the world to see. We do not lace what we publish with profanity. We do not wish harm upon people we disagree with. Our Code of Ethics forbids it.

And yet, Tim has repeatedly suggested that we’re full of hate.

Why is he doing this? Because he needs money. He chose to put himself in debt to get I-1053 on the ballot. Now he’s trying to pay it off, and raise money for his next initiative campaign at the same time. It’s been slow going. And so he’s getting desperate. A few weeks ago, he told his followers that he was ‘hitting the big panic button’, trying to compel them to open their checkbooks.

Now he’s on to his next gimmick: Using us as a punching bag. He figures his followers are more likely to give him money if they’re riled up, versus being calm. Perhaps he’ll get a few checks out of this, but we seriously doubt these gimmicks will help him secure the money that he really needs.

He just doesn’t have the huge base of support he claims to have.

If history is any indication, Eyman will not be back on the statewide ballot until he has a sugar daddy again – old or new. We think it’s likely Eyman will ultimately find a new wealthy benefactor.

What else is he going to do? Go back to selling fraternity wristwatches? In the meantime, it looks like we the taxpayers may be able to save some money on elections costs, which is great. We need every penny we can get these days.

Willful deception: Eyman deliberately misattributes degroatory comment about himself to Seattle P-I

Rethinking and Reframing

As we have previously documented on numerous occasions – both here and at the NPI Advocate – Tim Eyman is no fan of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer. The publication, formerly Seattle’s oldest newspaper and now its most-visited online-only news source, has consistently opposed Eyman’s ill-conceived initiatives over the years, and it also exposed his illicit money transfers from his campaign committee to his own personal bank account in a stupendous article written by Neil Modie nine years ago this month.

No surprise, then, that Eyman rarely misses a chance to demean the P-I in some way. Today, he did so by misattributing something a P-I commenter said to the P-I itself.

Here’s the subject line of his email:

Subject: SEATTLE PI: “Yes, I think Eyman should be retired or taken out and shot.”
Date: Wed, 23 Feb 2011 14:21:25 -0500

If you were looking at this subject line, you might be led to believe that a P-I columnist, or someone working for the P-I, had written those words. But if you open the email, you’ll notice a longer version of the quote is attributed to “Donald”:

“You have an article in the paper about Tim Eyman … It ended with, has he done enough for the state.  I think he’s done it to the state.  Yes, I think Eyman should be retired or taken out and shot.” – Donald

No citation was provided for the quote, which initially made us wonder if it ever existed at all. However, our team was able to track it down after just a little bit of searching; it’s from a P-I “Soundoff” from July 11th, 2003.

Obviously, Donald’s rhetoric does not represent what the Seattle Post-Intelligencer believes as an institution. Nor would most progressives consider shooting someone to be a remotely acceptable means to an end. True progressives are against violence, and don’t condone the extreme, un-American idea that “second amendment remedies” should be used to intimidate or eliminate political opponents.

Eyman himself uses the same kind of derogatory hyperbole when talking about people who stand in his way, whether they be elected leaders, public servants, or activists. Permanent Defense has an archive of Eyman emails going back many years, and we can readily produce venom-laden messages authored by Tim and sent to his supporters, reporters, and state lawmakers.

Before Eyman condemns a commenter for wishing that he be “taken out and shot”, he should look at his own past invective and tone down his language.

Hate speech is a precursor to violence. And more violence is the last thing our republic needs.

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