The Northwest Progressive Institute, Permanent Defense’s parent organization,  released the following statement on the apparent defeat of Tim Eyman’s I-1033 tonight.

“We can all breathe a collective sigh of relief tonight with the apparent defeat of Initiative 1033,” said Villeneuve. “I-1033 would have trapped our state in a permanent recession, making an economic recovery impossible.”

“Tonight’s victory over Tim Eyman is a testament to the many organizations and people that came together to create the NO on I-1033 Coalition. We at the Northwest Progressive Institute are incredibly proud to have been part of such a diverse and determined effort to protect our quality of life.”

Villeneuve noted that I-1033 is currently failing in many counties across Washington, both east and west.

“We worked aggressively during this campaign to get the word out about the harmful consequences of this initiative in every corner of the state. That’s why we’re seeing counties like Asotin, Garfield, and Columbia turning this scheme down. Tough times have already forced local governments there down to bare bones. Initiative 1033 would have gutted what was left. Fortunately, Washingtonians have said no to greed and yes to a sustainable future, sparing our communites from a devastating blow.”

The defeat of Initiative 1033 marks the first time voters have turned down a Tim Eyman initiative in an odd year, and it is the first time voters have consecutively rejected Eyman initiatives two years in a row on the ballot.

Today the people of the State of Washington sent a loud, clear message to perennial right wing initiative sponsor Tim Eyman: We’re sick of traffic and we don’t agree that the solution to our transportation mess is diverting money from our schools to pay for bigger and wider highways.

“We’re thrilled with the results,” said Andrew Villeneuve, Executive Director of the Northwest Progressive Institute (and Chair of Permanent Defense). “We’ve been working tirelessly over the last few months to educate voters about the consequences of this ill-conceived initiative. Today all that hard work paid off with an incredible victory.”

“We congratulate the people of Washington for making a wise and forward-thinking decision.”

Yesterday, Tim Eyman sent out an e-mail congratulating all his supporters on the success of Initiative 900, saying “All of you helped make I-900 a success.  We received over 2400 donations (average contribution was $247.10).”

It’s worth noting that Initiative 900 would have been doomed had it not been for the tremendous financial backing provided by multimillionaire Michael Dunmire. On June 9th, the Spokesman-Review reported on Eyman’s fundraising:

…According to campaign finance records filed with the state Public Disclosure Commission, Eyman has raised about $415,000 for the initiative. Of that, Dunmire and his wife have contributed more than $314,000…

A few weeks later, The Olympian did the same, but with new numbers:

Eyman’s I-900, which proposes an expansion of performance audits for state and local agencies, raised about $617,000. Of that, $489,494 came from a retired Woodinville investment executive, Michael Dunmire, and his wife, Phyllis Dunmire.

Eyman can calculate the total number of donations and produce an average, but he’s hiding the fact that his initiative was primarily funded by one person. There’s no denying that it wouldn’t have been possible without Dunmire. Using the figures provided by the Olympian, Dunmire’s contributions represent nearly 80% of the total amount Eyman raised. That’s a staggering amount.

In his email, Eyman also wrote: “Several recent news stories have made it sound like the Initiative 900 campaign jumped on the Democrats’ accountability bandwagon – quite the contrary…”

Actually, those news stories were accurate. Eyman did jump on the Democrats’ “accountability bandwagon”. House Democrats and the state auditor, Brian Sonntag (D), had already been working on performance audit legislation for years. Thanks to a change of leadership in the state Senate after last year’s elections, the legislation finally made it to the Governor’s desk and was signed by Gov. Christine Gregoire.

Initiatives aren’t difficult if you have a multimillionaire willing to pour nearly half a million dollars into your initiative campaign. If you have the money, you can qualify for the ballot – it doesn’t matter what your issue is or how popular it might be. Western Washington University political scientist Todd Donovan was correct. There was hardly any excitement around I-900. Without paid signature gatherers and Dunmire’s money, I-900 would have been another failure for Eyman.

It is apparent that Eyman is going to ignore the clearly-expressed wishes of voters in the last election and proceed ahead with his initiative to gut a significant portion of the 2005 transportation package.

If Eyman respected the voters’ decision, he’d drop his plans for his 2006 initiative to repeal the rest of the package and move on. But, since it doesn’t appear he’s going to do that, he will be exhibiting tremendous disrespect for the taxpayers of Washington State.

He and his cohorts gambled on the passage of Initiative 912 and lost. They demanded that voters have a say. Voters have had their say, and they’ve put their stamp of approval on Olympia’s work – they want the state to invest in transportation and our future.

The I-695 vote was six years ago, and the I-776 vote was three years ago. The people have just spoken again, and there’s a clear mandate for keeping the 2005 transportation package intact. (And, it should be remembered that King County voted against both I-695 and I-776. Voters in King County have a clear and consistent record of wanting to invest in better roads, bridges, and transit services

Eyman never looks at the consequences of repealing taxes. There is no free lunch. We can’t have services we’re not willing to pay for.

If we want safe roads and bridges, less congestion, a stronger economy, and a healthier state, we simply must invest in transportation.

The Legislature and the people are in agreement. People like Tim Eyman need to get out of the way and stop obstructing our state’s progress. His efforts are not welcome.

“As we expected, Initiative 900 is passing with a fairly comfortable margin, according to the latest results,” said Permanent Defense Chair Andrew Villeneuve. “While the initiative was poorly drafted and not subject to public hearings or other constructive input, voters saw the words ‘performance audits’ on the ballot, and decided that they would like to expand the scope of the auditor’s office.”

Tim Eyman does not deserve credit for Initiative 900. His main financial backer, Michael Dunmire, does. It was Dumire’s money that put Initiative 900 on the ballot. Dunmire poured almost half a million dollars into Eyman’s political committee to support 900.

“We still think Initiative 900 is flawed, and we will urge the Legislature to go back and make some changes to the language during the next legislative session,” Villeneuve added. “In particular, we’d like to see state legislators give the citizen advisory board additional teeth so that all this power is not concentrated in the hands of one official.”