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Monday, March 18, 2013

Crime / Election PDC Investigating Tim Eyman for Flagrantly Violating Public Disclosure Laws

Posted by Goldy on Mon, Mar 18, 2013 at 9:05 AM

After months of I don't know what, the Washington State Public Disclosure commission has finally launched an investigation into allegations that initiative profiteer Tim Eyman and his partners illegally financed their Initiative 517 signature drive with funds raised to gather signatures for Initiative 1185.

As I first detailed back in August, Eyman's signature gathering contractors are accused of running a complicated scheme that attempted to force subcontractors to collect I-517 signatures for free as a condition of employment for collecting signatures on the more lucrative I-1185. The complaint includes affidavits and invoices that suggest canvassers were ultimately paid for I-517 signatures at a time the campaign had reported raising little or no funds.

If proven, these allegations would amount to a flagrant violation of the laws governing the funding and disclosure of such signature drives. Ironically, I-517 would make it easier to run such signature drives in the future.

Personally, I'm not confident that the PDC retains either the resources or the will to thoroughly investigate such a complex operation. So I'm crossing my fingers that they ultimately hand it off to the Attorney General's Office for a proper investigation.

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Comments (15) RSS

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Goldy, why do you hate white people like Tim Eyman so much? He was just doing the job people paid him to do.

Maybe the Washington State Public Disclosure Commission can investigate all of the voting irregularities here when they finish up with Eyman...

Posted by GeneStoner on March 18, 2013 at 9:28 AM

Something very similar happened to initiative whore Bill Sizemore in Oregon.

I was wondering why Eymann seemed so subdued at the 2/3 majority defeat by the Supreme Court. Did he know this was coming?

Posted by Fizgig on March 18, 2013 at 9:33 AM

How much potential prison prison time are we looking at here? I could use a few years without Eyman I-crap.

Posted by treefort on March 18, 2013 at 9:52 AM

He's the modern day example of the snake oil salesman.

Posted by Pope Peabrain on March 18, 2013 at 10:12 AM

If there was a picture of Eyeman heading off to prison in handcuffs, I would enlarge it, frame it and put it on my wall. I would then get a good laugh every time I looked at it.

Posted by SeattleKim on March 18, 2013 at 10:24 AM

@5: Darts might also possibly be involved.

Posted by MLM on March 18, 2013 at 10:57 AM

Timmeh violate the rules? Say it isn't so.

Posted by Frank Blethen's vodka distiller on March 18, 2013 at 11:01 AM

@1: Tim needs to obey the laws, like every other political profiteer.

Posted by J.R. on March 18, 2013 at 12:29 PM

Out of curiosity, has Washington state ever prosecuted a case like this? We all know a few high profile examples of people doing time for (blatantly) violating Federal campaign finance law, but I'm curious to what extent the State is prepared to take this.

Posted by Dougsf on March 18, 2013 at 12:48 PM

Lock him up forever.

Posted by very bad homo on March 18, 2013 at 12:50 PM

It's soooo gonna smart when he finally receives that sternly worded letter.

Posted by sloegin on March 18, 2013 at 12:59 PM

@9: Tim's been caught mishandling funds before. He received no jail time, but a $50,000 fine and a lifetime ban on handling campaign finances.

Posted by Proteus on March 18, 2013 at 1:30 PM

@12 - Thank you.

Posted by Dougsf on March 18, 2013 at 1:39 PM

That is nothing compared to Jay Inslee and his shenanigans. Who cares about Eyman trying to get signatures, at least hes trying to make good things happen.

Posted by awkaemingk on March 18, 2013 at 11:45 PM

In a perfect world, part of his sentence for this would be to bar him from ever participating in another initiative campaign

Posted by SeattleMike on March 19, 2013 at 8:31 PM