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Monday, June 5, 2006

Eyman & Co. to Media: “Feel like you’ve been duped this morning — well, you have.”

Posted by on June 5 at 11:55 AM

Last week, Tim Eyman told every reporter on his email list that he would be in Olympia today at 11 a.m., “bringing down petitions” to the Secretary of State’s office. The implication was clear: Eyman had enough signatures for his anti-gay referendum, R-65, and would be turning them in today, one day before the Tuesday deadline. Well, it turns out today’s press event was a total ruse — and if you want to see reporters get mad, try luring them all the way down to Olympia for a phony event, and then mocking them to their faces.

Eyman, dressed in a Darth Vader outfit to emphasize how little he cares about being perceived as some sort of “dark lord,” walked a small batch of signed R-65 petitions past the desks at the Secretary of State’s office and then turned around and walked right back out of the office, still holding the signed petitions. There were maybe 30 petitions, containing about 20 signatures each, which means Eyman showed up today with about 600 signatures in favor of R-65, nowhere near the 112,000 he needs.

The inescapable conclusion: He doesn’t have the signatures, and he was using today’s press event in a last ditch effort to get free press, through which he might encourage more people to sign R-65 petitions before tomorrow’s deadline. One of his cohorts said as much, telling the assembled reporters:

“Feel like you’ve been duped this morning — well, you have.”

The reporters weren’t having it. When Eyman tried to use his camera time to stump for R-65 and a car tabs initiative he’s pushing this year, a radio reporter cut him off, telling Eyman that the media wasn’t there to air a commercial for him. A print reporter asked Eyman if he was even capable of running a successful referendum campaign without misleading people (as Eyman’s been doing with R-65), and without misleading the press. Eyman didn’t have a good answer for that one, except to say that he doesn’t care what reporters think of him, as long as they write about him.

“There’s no such thing as bad press, that’s the reality,” he said.

There were boxes of petitions that Eyman had brought to the event with him, and I asked one of the Eyman supporters to open up the sealed boxes. Turns out the boxes weren’t holding R-65 petitions, they were holding petitions for Eyman’s car tabs initiative — petitions that weren’t even due this week.

“You have to be accountable in politics,” Eyman was saying.

I asked him if this event was an example of running an accountable political campaign, given that one day before the R-65 signatures are due he can’t even tell us how many signatures he has. Again, Eyman dodged: “If we were at all concerned about being well-liked and respected…”

Bottom line: This was one of the most unprincipled press conferences I’ve ever seen, and my sense is that the reporters whose time was wasted this morning are furious. I hesitate to even write about it, given Eyman’s “no such thing as bad press” mantra, but I do think it’s important to give a sense of how dishonest he’s willing to be in order to get a camera in front of himself. It will be interesting to see how the dailies and the television stations handle this stunt — if they give it any attention at all.


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Fuck, this guy has been irrelevant since he was outted as an embezzler back in 2002. It's about time the press awakened to this fact.

What an asshat.

Eli, what are your thoughts about the possibility that Eyman will show up tomorrow with the necessary signatures? No way he only got 600 with the church-stumping he's been doing. It doesn't make sense that he'd follow up today's bizarre non-press conference with a successful submission of signatures (say that 5 times fast), but then, very little about Tim Eyman makes sense.

It seems like he is a much bigger figure with the liberal press and gay fundraising groups than with his own 'constituents.' Only 24 hours left to give to Washington Won't Discriminate! Rush your check in NOW. What is Anne Levinson going to do for work?

So he still has until end-of-business tomorrow to bring in signatures, right?

I don't trust that sleazeball, and I don't trust the religious wrong. I just want the deadline to pass with no successful filing.

And the Darth Vader drag isn't even remotely campy.

Eli..

Did you have Goldy approve this before you posted it?

Thanks for the reporting Eli... I agree that he is a case of desperately seeking the limelight for his own purposes... and I certainly hope the "mainstream" media exposes that for what it is.

King 5 did report it as the press being duped.

Um, did you say he showed up in a Darth Vader outfit?

I think it's time to dust off my anti-eyman initiative idea:

"prohibit Tim Eyman from participating, publicly or privately, in the Washington state voter initiative process"

http://www.tabletnewspaper.com/politics/52_irate.html

Sorry, Bing -- your initiative idea is more unconstitutional than Mr. Eyman's. Unfortunately.

God, isn't that horse's ass's 15 minutes up yet? What a waste of oxygen he is.

I for one would like to see this Darth Vader outfit.

[ et al, check the King5 story. (You may have to log in or something.)

Reporters angered by Eyman's latest stunt

What's with the guy carrying the blackboard reading 142,613? Is he one of Eyeman's lackies or just an innocent bystander?

If he is part of the Eyeman entourage, replace the word "guy" in my first paragraph with the term "fat doofus", and leave off the second sentence.

Damn him, i can't help but think that "angering the media" is not exactly a bad thing for his popularity with the masses. This initiative drive is so stunt-filled it does give the impression of desperation (we can only hope).

Seems like he is trying to angle himself into a return to the "Your-Name-Here" wholesale promotional watch industry.

The blackboard with numbers looks like the one from Sci-Fi Channel's "Battlestar Galactica", which counts how many humans are left alive after the Cylon genocide. Seems apropo, no?

If he thinks there's no such thing as bad press, how about no press. If he irks you, give him up. You don't have to cover him. Let him start his own press.

Expecting Eyman not to lie is like ...

ok, I'm sorry, what was the question?

I am glad that the media feel duped today by Eyman's self promoting publicity stunt, because Eyman has been duping the public for years now. He has repeatedly said what he thought he needed to do to get publicity or try to get support for a measure even when he knew it was a lie.

Remember when he illegally paid himself some $200,000 of campaign funds, while telling the public he was a volunteer doing it for free. He later admited that he thought that would get his issues more support.Well the state fined him and banned him from ever being treasuer of a campaign committee again.

Eyman loves attention but the press and others were once again used. Since the Secretary of State had to hire people to log in the petitions today when Eyman knew he was turning nothing in, the Secretarty of State should bill Eyman for his waste of taxpayers money.

The sign reading 142,613...???

That's most likely how many signatures they have so far. He's playing games. That number is probably the only sliver of truth in his entire charade. Why hasn't anyone else figured that out? It's no accident that guy is standing there.

Now he gets free promo today and again tomorrow when he submits.

...a pathetic person.

I am watching how this plays out in the local media. He is stacking the deck, as Fagan all but says, but why? A "with me, against me" media play is in action and it looks like a "liberal media is against me, see they are making fun of our little Timmy" story will be in the conservative leaning media outlets for the rest of the week.

The bigger question is WHY? piss of every reporter who woke up this morning to travel to oly to see timmy walk around and tell them what saps they were?

Timmy should know that bad press is press... but it is the public who decides if the story has merit. yeah look at what bad press did to Michael Jackson, OJ Simpson, or Gary Hart for that matter.

Catalina:

The blackboard with the number on it is another part of the hoax. As became clear part-way through the press conference, the 142,613 number refers to the number of signatures Eyman has so far gathered for his most recent CAR TABS initiative -- and the signatures for the car tabs initiative are not due this week, like the signatures for R-65 are. So the 142,613 number is basically a non-sequiter in the conversation about R-65, making the blackboard a very misleading visual aid.

Tim who?

Eli-

Thanks for giving us the ringside explanation of the 142,613 number. I'm glad I'm wrong.

re the CAR TABS initiative: If he only has 142,613 sigs, he's got roughly 32 days to collect an additional 157,387 he will most likely need to qualify (that number includes a buffer for invalids). He'll want to submit around 300,000 sigs needing about 225,000 valids.

so, is this car tabs initiative to let us use Tab soda in our cars, since we can't afford gas thanks to Eyman and his ilk?

Despite the tragedy that was the New trilogy it pisses me off that he would profane the image of our dark lord of the sith.

On the upside, maybe this is and indication that Mr. Eyman has finally gone completely insane.

You can take the sniggering shithead out of the frat house, but you can't take the frat house out of the sniggering shithead. This isn't politics, it's a prank. A truly pathetic display.

A darth vader costume?

A darth vader costume????

Yeah, there's no such thing as bad press - if you're a fucking entertainer. There is a reason you don't see a lot of successful politicians wearing clown suits and raping puppies.

Maybe he's trying to pump up his religious cred by hyping his virginity?

Hey, does this publicity stunt in the Vader costume violate any of Lucas Arts copy writes/trademarks?

Maybe someone should ask them...

Eyman is an imbecile and could be laughed away... except that I have three beautiful children and a devoted, amazing partner I want protected. Our lives, careers, home and safety are no laughing matter. I am disgusted that our families' security and our basic rights are his joke and publicity stunt.

Eyman is an imbecile and could be laughed away... except that I have three beautiful children and a devoted, amazing partner I want protected. Our lives, careers, home and safety are no laughing matter. I am disgusted that our families' security and our basic rights are his joke and publicity stunt.

He went to fundie churches and didn't get the signatures, even after lying and claiming that the initiative was about gay marriage. Stupid fuck.

OMG! "Sniggering shithead" is my new favorite phrase. And don't it JUST fit that SOB?!

I have a hard time feeling sorry for the press, though, who have refused to let the little man die the little (media) death he so richly deserves. Talk about your sound and fury signifying NOTHING! The guy is a nasty little clown, and he doesn't deserve ANY publicity- good or bad. In fact, (after this)I am officially done referring to him in any public forum.

So, did the shithead make good on his threat to return today at 4pm?

i've heard from good sources that he did not get enough sigs to get this on the ballot!

Now we know how many evangilicals there are in the state.

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