Washington’s communities have prevailed.

A dangerous initiative that threatened to unweave the fabric of our neighborhoods and communities has been defeated in a landslide victory.

Initiative 892, Tim Eyman’s plan to keep his initiative factory going, has collapsed in a spectacular failure – and the gambling industry’s plans have been stopped. Thanks to voters’ overwhelming defeat of Initiative 892, the gambling industry cannot infect Washington’s communities with thousands of addictive electronic slot machines.

The victory is a tremendous win for taxpayers, and shows that Tim Eyman is a shell of what he once was. No longer able to command large amounts of money, Eyman is unable to fund signatures drives by himself.

He turned to the special interests – the gambling industry – but voters have finally awoken to the danger of the initiative profiteer’s words. They stunned Eyman by not only turning down his initiative, but doing it in large numbers.

Eyman couldn’t explain his failure, let alone face it. He tried to hide behind other factors in the election – the race for Governor, Ron Sims’ defeat in the primary, the passage of Initiative 18 King County (which is not even his) but he simply couldn’t escape his disastrous defeat.

The result of the election shows that Eyman is stuck in the mud: he is 0-for-4 in his last four attempts to land an initiative on the ballot and get it passed. I-892 joins Initiatives 267, 807, and 864 as Eyman defeats.

Washington is not in need of Eyman’s tax cuts. Statistics show that Washington ranks in the thirties compared to the other fifty states. Washington is actually one of the 25 states in the lower tier.

With a shrinking base, and a string of defeats hanging over him, Eyman has lost much of his political clout. So many people voted for Governor in the 2004 election that the requirement for signatures to get on the ballot has increased by tens of thousands. It will only be harder for Eyman to get on the ballot in 2005.

And that’s a good thing.

It would be a wonderful thing if this landmark defeat resulted in Eyman winding down his initiative factory and getting a job that actually allows him to contribute to society. Even if that doesn’t happen, we’ve now demonstrated that Eyman can be resoundingly beaten at the ballot. We’re committed to defending our state against whatever destructive scheme Eyman may come up with next.