During the past twelve months, the State of Washington filed not one, not two, not three, but four lawsuits against Tim Eyman and his associates alleging serious violations of our public disclosure laws, acting on complaints filed by organizations like Washingtonians For Ethical Government and Keep Washington Rolling.

Yet, Eyman and his crew continue to brazenly violate RCW Chapter 42.17A with impunity, acting as though the law simply doesn’t apply to them.

Last month, Eyman launched a new effort to “stick it to Sound Transit” (Initiative 947) which he has been regularly promoting on talk radio with the help of KVI’s John Carlson and KIRO’s Dori Monson. I-947 is essentially a redux of two initiatives that Eyman tried to get on the ballot last year (I-1421 and I-869) but which everyone seems to have forgotten about — probably because neither got off the ground.

Eyman is hoping I-947 will be different.

Although he still doesn’t appear to have commitments from any wealthy benefactors to hire paid petitioners, Eyman is gamely trying to run a signature drive anyway, relying on volunteer assistance. In addition to receiving free publicity from Carlson and Monson (who, like Eyman, loathe Sound Transit), Eyman is also getting help from the Washington State Republican Party and its locals. Republican Party organizations have been seen hawking petitions for I-947 at public events like The Evergreeen State Fair in Monroe.

The I-947 campaign began many weeks ago, but Eyman and his associates have yet to properly register their campaign with the Public Disclosure Commission as the law requires. Journalists: you can see this for yourself by doing the following:

• Go to www.pdc.wa.gov, navigate to View Reports, and run an Advanced Search for the ballot number “947”. Nothing will turn up.
• Browse to the latest filings for Voters Want More Choices, the committee Eyman is collecting I-947 donations through according to his website. You won’t see an updated C1-PC among them.
• The last C1-PC filed by Voters Want More Choices dates back to February, when Eyman was trying to qualify an initiative to cut property taxes. This is it. (It wasn’t correctly filled out, so Voters Want More Choices is listed under Continuing Committees as opposed to Initiatives — 2017.)

In its instructions to campaigns, the PDC is clear: File a C1-PC “within two weeks of when the committee is organized or within two weeks of when the committee first expects to receive contributions or make expenditures, whichever is earlier.”

Many weeks have elapsed since Eyman first expected to receive contributions or make expenditures for I-947, but he hasn’t registered the campaign with the PDC. At the end of last month, Washingtonians For Ethical Government notified the Attorney General and King County Prosecuting Attorney that it will bring a lawsuit against Tim Eyman and his associates for failing to file if they choose not to. A month has gone by since that notice was sent, but Eyman’s crew hasn’t filed their C1-PC.

There’s more. NPI and WFEG have reason to believe Eyman has failed to report all of his campaign-related expenditures.

On August 9th, Eyman’s treasurer Barbara Smith filed monthly reports for Voters Want More Choices, including a C4 and C3s. The C4 states that Eyman spent $328.19 on petition printing from Adpro Litho, on July 24th, 2017. That’s the only expense for petition printing listed for July. Here are the others reported expenses and vendor names:

Evidence suggests Tim Eyman has spent a lot more than $328.19 on petition printing for Initiative 947. Last month, Eyman sent out a flurry of emails in which he urged his supporters to contact him to participate in the I-947 signature drive.

In one such email, dated July 26th, 2017, Eyman wrote:

Send me an email and let me know how many petitions you want, your address, and your phone number. I will find an Office Depot, Staples, or Kinko’s near you, order the petitions for you, and all you need to do is pick them [up]. It is a petition distribution revolution that nearly 100 supporters have done already. 

Emphasis is ours. Aside from the payment to Adpro Litho, there are no other itemized expenses for petition printing for the month of July 2017, and Voters Want More Choices listed no expenses of fifty dollars or less either.

If Eyman is printing up petitions for followers through office supply stores, and if more than a hundred people have taken him up on this offer, where are those expenditures, and why aren’t they being reported? Eyman’s offer implies that he will pay for the petitions (“all you need to do is pick them up”) and says more than a hundred people have done it.

Even in the event Eyman’s not paying, the expenses still need to be reported as in-kind expenditures. The law requires it; free or reduced cost printing is explicitly listed by the PDC as a type of expenditure that needs to be disclosed. But Voters Want More Choices hasn’t reported a single in-kind expenditure for 2017.

“The whole point of requiring campaigns to register and to report their contributions and expenditures in a timely fashion is so the people can see who is trying to influence their vote… or get their signature,” said Northwest Progressive Institute founder and Executive Director Andrew Villeneuve, who has been organizing opposition to Tim Eyman’s initiative factory for over fifteen years.

“Tim Eyman is deliberately obscuring the activities of his I-947 campaign from the public. He has been active in politics for over twenty years; he can’t claim he’s ignorant of the law. He is choosing not to comply with the reporting requirements, while at the same time pathetically whining about being the victim of a ‘witch hunt’ by Attorney General Bob Ferguson. The truth is, Eyman’s legal woes are self-inflicted. He brought the litigation he’s presently facing on himself. And he can expect more liability in the future if he continues his ugly, stinky, and disgusting behavior.”