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Tuesday, January 31, 2006

Eyman Better Hope Dunmire is a Homophobe

Posted by on January 31 at 16:31 PM

Woodinville businessman Michael Dunmire’s contributions to Tim Eyman’s last initiative campaign accounted for about 70% of the money Eyman raised. Dunmire, an executive with the investment firm Benchmark Plus Partners, which manages investment funds for institutional and individual wealthy investors, kicked in $490,000 directly to Eyman’s I-900, the audit initiative. Dunmire dropped another $100,000 to the political committee, Help Us Help Taxpayers, which contributed handsomely to the campaign as well. That’s $590,000.

Early in the I-900 campaign, when Dunmire had “only” given about 200K, but was clearly emerging as Eyman’s sugar daddy, Dunmire told David Ammons of the AP:

“I’m 60 years old and have been very successful in business and wanted to do something to give back to the community.”

Hopefully, Dunmire doesn’t think Eyman’s new initiative—which would allow discrimination against gays in housing, employment, insurance and credit—is a way to give back to the community. Take back from the community, would be more like it.



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I hate to say it, but I'm willing to bet there are enough motivated bigots on this issue that Eyman might just be able to get a referendum on the ballot with volunteers. If not, he'll probably be able to raise lots of small donations to funds getting it before voters if necessary.

Sad, but true, I'm afraid.

That's true. And there is a theory out there that Eyman is doing this initiative just to raise money...that is: to attract all that bigot money just to keep his organization well-funded.

The big money isn't for getting the sigs to get it on the ballot, though. That'll be pretty easy. Eyman's gonna need the big money for the advertising/media campaign at election time.

Please. Even polite NPR was calling Tim Eyman a "professional initiative promoter" when they talked about his initiative/referendum today.

Lets not kid ourselves. He may have started out as a populist, but over time he has turned initiative pimping into a full time career. That is how he makes a living. This high visibility, highly divisive initiative will be a cash cow for him. He'll make more money pushing this than any other initiative he could dream up this year.

I don't think money is his sole motivation. I'm sure he is pushing this because he thinks he is right in killing gay rights. This does show his true colors as a homophobic right-wing wacko. But look at the speed in which he filed. He announced his initiative/referendum before the governor even signed it into law today. I'm sure part of the reason he moved so publicly and so fast is because if he didn't, someone else would have beaten him to the punch, and syphoned off the cash he'll make from this. It was inevitable that somebody was going to file a referendum to abolish this new law. It was only a matter of who and when. Eyman filed first, which will feed his ego and his pocketbook for the rest of the year.

Eyman has become an initiative whore. And he has less scruples than most of the hookers on Aurora.

Here's how I see this playing out: This initiative will get enough signatures to make it onto the ballot. It will pass. And the court fight will begin, and the state Supreme Court will likely overturn the initiative.


To be certain, Eyman is a horse's ass, but he's not stupid. He knows this will happen. And now he'll have defined himself as the martyr for the false rights of bigots throughout the state. The dual faucets of power and money will be turned on full blast for at least the next decade for him, enough to get him through to where he can either retire or define a new enemy/scapegoat for his causes.


On the other hand, did Eyman move too quickly to file this time around? The most common refrain I hear from the moderates that usually support him is that he's gone too far this time. It's one thing to attack car tabs or make the government do funny little dances for our amusement, it's quite another to go after the civil rights of friends and neighbors.

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