September 10th, 2018

Eyman contempt sanctions doubled, but even tougher penalties may be needed

In the Courts

Since February 16th, 2018, Tim Eyman and petitioning company Citizen Solutions been in contempt of court for failing to turn over records sought by Attorney General Bob Ferguson in one of the four campaign finance enforcement cases his office has brought against the prolific initiative pitchman and his associates.

With no end in sight to their stonewalling, Thurston County Superior Court Judge James Dixon on Friday doubled the daily contempt sanctions against each defendant from $250/day to $500/day and granted the state direct access to Eyman’s banking records.

Northwest Progressive Institute Founder and Executive Director Andrew Villeneuve, who has been organizing opposition to Eyman initiatives for over sixteen years, called the latest developments critical to overcoming Eyman’s legal defense strategy of delay, obfuscate, and obstruct, but noted even tougher sanctions may be necessary.

“It’s no surprise that Tim Eyman doesn’t want to be held accountable for his lawbreaking, but he cannot be allowed to continue to stonewall in the extreme as he has been,” said Villeneuve. “After almost seven months, he and his associates have racked up a total of $101,500 in contempt penalties, plus they’re on the hook for $35,722.30 in state attorney’s fees and court costs. That may sound like a lot of money, but evidently to them, it’s just a necessary cost associated with obscuring the truth for as long as possible.”

Fortunately, Villeneuve said, Judge Dixon didn’t just double the contempt penalties on Friday, but allowed the state to have direct access to Eyman’s bank records.

“We’re pleased that Judge Dixon took action beyond just increasing the amount of the daily contempt sanctions, but we wish he’d taken this step months ago.”

“We believe higher penalties are warranted. Given that Eyman and Citizen Solutions were willing to pay $250/day in fines for over half a year rather that purge their contempt, it stands to reason they’re ready to pay $500/day. They appear to have plenty of money for their legal defense, and there’s probably more where that came from. To compel their compliance with the Court’s orders, we’d like to see the sanctions raised to a higher, more appropriate amount, like $2,000/day.”

The state is seeking more than just banking records, so tougher penalties could help compel Eyman’s cooperation.

“It is time for the stonewalling to end,” Villeneuve said. “Enough games, enough silly excuses for failing to produce records, enough obstruction. Washingtonians deserve the truth. Justice isn’t served by a never-ending investigation.”

Although a trial in the case had originally been planned for late November, Judge Dixon recently granted a request from Attorney General Bob Ferguson’s office to extend its discovery cutoff deadline and revise the case schedule order.

The state’s discovery cutoff is now December 14th, 2018.

On August 24th, Dixon also ordered that the defendants’ motions for summary judgment be stricken until discovery has concluded, and dismissed most of Eyman’s counterclaims, which eliminates the possibility of Eyman and his associates winning damages or attorney’s fees.

The aforementioned case is No. 17-2-01546-34, and is one of four filed against Tim Eyman by the State of Washington in 2016 and 2017.

August 16th, 2018

Let the people vote? Nope! Tim Eyman calls for I-1639 to be blocked from ballot

Rethinking and ReframingStatements & Advisories

This afternoon, in an email sent out to his followers and the press, Tim Eyman did something we haven’t seen him do before… something which makes it laughably, ridiculously clear that Eyman’s longtime rallying cry of Let the people vote is a total and utter crock. He publicly called on Washington’s judiciary to issue an injunction blocking an initiative that he opposes (I-1639) from appearing on the statewide ballot.

The measure in question, sponsored by the Alliance for Gun Responsibility, would raise the minimum age to purchase semi-automatic firearms, impose new safe storage requirements, and set up an enhanced background check system. The National Rifle Association (NRA) and Alan Gottlieb have separately filed suit to block it from the ballot on procedural grounds.

“Tomorrow this judge should boot the billionaires’ anti-gun-rights initiative off the ballot,” Eyman wrote. “It’ll send a message that even billionaires have to follow the law. And besides, because they have unlimited resources, they can sponsor it again next year (and next time they’re likely to follow the law). So voters won’t be ‘robbed’ of their right to vote on this initiative, their vote will just be delayed.”

Three years ago, when a coalition of progressive organizations sued to block Eyman’s billionaire-funded I-1366 from the ballot on scope grounds in Huff v. Wyman, Eyman’s response was to scream Let the people vote incessantly, to accuse his opposition of having a total lack of trust in the voters, and to assert that the people’s First Amendment rights would be violated if the courts ruled against him.

Here’s a few snippets of what Eyman said then:

“If you can’t win a vote, you try to cancel it or block it.”

— Tim Eyman, July 31st, 2015

“We are very confident the voters will get to vote on I-1366. Why? Because in our state’s 100 year history, the courts have never — not once — prevented the people from voting on a statewide initiative that turned in the required signatures and was certified for the vote by the Secretary of State. And there have been 2 unanimous state supreme court rulings — in 2005 and 2007 — that rejected lawsuits just like this one, making clear that the voters’ First Amendment right to vote on qualified initiatives would not be violated.”

— Tim Eyman, August 14th, 2015

“Because opponents of I-1366 can’t win the vote, they’re desperate to stop the vote. The voters will be completely disenfranchised and their First Amendment rights negated if opponents succeed at blocking the vote on I-1366.”

— Tim Eyman, August 14th, 2015

“Opponents of I-1366 clearly don’t trust the voters and believe the people aren’t smart enough to understand our measure. We do. We trust the citizens to make this decision and we’re confident the people ‘get’ why I-1366 is necessary.”

— Tim Eyman, September 4th, 2015

All emphasis in boldface is ours. While Huff v. Wyman was before the courts, Eyman also repeatedly circulated this statement from his pal State Senator Pam Roach:

“No one is harmed by a public vote on an initiative. It is the voters who will be irreparably harmed if Initiative 1366 is removed from the ballot and blocked from a vote because it will prevent the voters from expressing their views on the measure. It is the 339,236 voters who signed petitions who will be irreparably harmed if Initiative 1366 is blocked because they signed those petitions to ensure a vote. … I urge that the court not take the unprecedented and undemocratic step of preventing the people from voting on a qualified statewide initiative.”

— Former State Senator Pam Roach, now a Pierce County Councilmember (amicus brief submitted during the Huff v. Wyman case, 2015)

Again, emphasis is ours.

Whatever happened to “Let the people vote!”? Whatever happened to trusting the voters, who are smart enough to understand a measure like I-1639? Whatever happened to “no one is harmed by a public vote on an initiative”?

And what about the First Amendment rights of the hundreds of thousands of voters who signed I-1639, which according to 2015 Tim Eyman’s logic, would be violated if I-1639 were to be blocked from the ballot?

As we can see, none of that matters… not to 2018 Tim Eyman, anyway… because I-1639 is not a right wing initiative. I-1639 is a progressive initiative that Eyman opposes.

Is it any surprise that Tim Eyman’s loyalty is to his friends who are suing to keep I-1639 off the ballot, not to the initiative process that he claims to love so much? Not to us. We’ve always believed that for Eyman, initiatives are a means to an end, which is getting rich while wrecking our government so it can’t work the way our Founders intended it to.

Eyman’s argument that the voters won’t be harmed if I-1639 gets blocked from the ballot because I-1639 has proponents who are rich enough to fund another signature drive next year is deeply illuminating.

The same could have been said about his I-1366 three years ago: billionaire hedge fund manager Kenneth Fisher is one of the richest men on Earth, and real estate developer Clyde Holland is quite wealthy too.

Both of them could have easily afforded to bankroll another Eyman initiative that was not outside of the scope of the initiative power, and in fact, Eyman was counting on them funding a follow-up to I-1366 no matter what the courts decided.

But they chose not to, and consequently, Eyman was not able to qualify anything to the ballot in 2016… or 2017… or this year.

As Eyman emphasized three years ago, Washington’s courts have long been reluctant to block a statewide initiative from the ballot. The only statewide initiative to have ever been invalidated by the Washington State Supreme Court was a measure that impermissibly sought to amend the United States Constitution. In Philadelphia v. Gregoire, the Court ruled that measure could not move forward (it had not received a ballot title).

If I-1639 deserves to be blocked from the ballot on procedural grounds, then past Tim Eyman initiatives also should have been blocked on scope and procedural grounds. However, Washington’s courts have repeatedly chosen not to void measures like Eyman’s with a sufficient number of valid signatures from appearing on the ballot, no matter how serious their defects were.

2018 Tim Eyman nevertheless wants the judiciary to take the “unprecedented and undemocratic step” of preventing I-1639 from heading to the ballot for voters to consider.

Let the people vote? That’s so 2015!

July 20th, 2018

NPI congratulates Sound Transit on East Link tunnel breakthrough in downtown Bellevue

AnnouncementsStatements & Advisories

Construction on Sound Transit’s vitally important East Link light rail extension reached an important milestone this week when contractors digging a tunnel under downtown Bellevue broke through to daylight at the future site of the station that will serve the city’s central core. The hole-through was expected to take place at the end of 2018, but construction has gone so well that it happened five months ahead of schedule.

Northwest Progressive Institute founder and Executive Director Andrew Villeneuve congratulated Sound Transit on the breakthrough, noting that expansion of the region’s light rail spine is crucial to the realization of a future that will enable Puget Sound residents to enjoy greater freedom of mobility.

“As a future East Link rider, I’m thrilled to see the progress that Sound Transit and its contracting teams have made on this vitally important project,” Villeneuve said.

“Light rail will revolutionize not only cross-lake travel between Seattle and the Eastside, but also commutes and trips between Eastside neighborhoods. It’s truly reassuring to see girders and columns rising up along each part of the alignment, from Judkins Park to Mercer Island to Bellevue to Redmond, NPI’s hometown.”

East Link (which was approved in 2008 as part of Sound Transit 2) may be on track and headed for completion, but other communities are at risk of losing the voter-approved Link expansion they voted for, Villeneuve warned.

“Two years ago, our region decided to invest in transit options that we know will give people an alternative to sitting in traffic. We voted to expand light rail in four directions as well as add more express bus, commuter rail, and bus rapid transit service,” Villeneuve said. “Sadly, Tim Eyman and other Sound Transit 3 opponents do not respect the will of the voters and are seeking not only to sabotage Sound Transit 3, but to wipe out funding for Amtrak Cascades plus local roads, sidewalks, and bus service with Initiative 976.”

“At NPI, we are mobilizing to fight this threat to our transit investments. Implementation of I-976 would cause catastrophic damage to every part of Washington State — from Spokane to Kelso and Battle Ground to Prosser,” Villeneuve said.

“Every Washingtonian would lose under this initiative, whether they live in a rural community, a suburban neighborhood, or the big city. That’s why the team at the Northwest Progressive Institute is accelerating our work to unite Washingtonians in support of Amtrak Cascades, Sound Transit 3, and essential local projects, so that we get the transportation improvements that we sorely need.”

In the past, initiatives similar to I-976 have benefited from a lack of vigorous, year-round opposition. But those days ended with the establishment of Permanent Defense.

“An inclusive economy requires an inclusive, multimodal transportation system that gives people choices. Thanks to great work by our elected representatives and sound decisions we’ve made at the ballot as a people, we are moving away from an auto-centric transportation system and towards a human-centric one,” Villeneuve said.

“But communities that are anxiously awaiting vital transit and road improvements are at risk of not getting them if we don’t neutralize threats like I-976. So while we are thrilled to celebrate today’s big East Link breakthrough, we are mindful of the need to protect all the projects that are still on the drawing board or undergoing final design.”

On Monday, July 23rd, NPI will unveil a new NO on I-976 website meant to help voters understand the threat that this destructive initiative represents, and enable concerned citizens and organizations to join the coalition opposed to the measure. The site’s availability will be announced through NPI’s publications as well as via news release.

July 6th, 2018

Tim Eyman gets a gift from NPI’s Permanent Defense at his roadside press conference

From the Campaign TrailRethinking and Reframing

Tim Eyman didn’t have petitions to submit today to qualify an initiative to the November 2018 ballot, but the lawbreaking initiative promoter decided to show up at the Secretary of State’s Elections Annex anyway in a bid to garner attention for I-976, his fourth attempt in three years to wipe out transit investments across Washington State.

Stationed in front of a pickup truck adorned with a banner and tubs of I-976 petitions, Eyman kept a steady stream of commentary coming to any reporters who would listen about the I-976 signature drive as well as the Alliance for Gun Responsibility’s I-1639, which Eyman opposes and which is likely headed to the ballot.

To signify and reaffirm our dedication to vigorously opposing and defeating I-976, we provided Eyman and his associate Mike Fagan (a Spokane City Councilmember) with a token of our commitment to protecting our vital transit investments. Each received a copy of the mini-poster below depicting Link light rail vehicles in action.

Link is our newest transit mode and is liberating an increasing number of riders from gridlock in one of our state’s most crowded, congested corridors. It is being expanded north, east, south,  and west simultaneously thanks to voter approval of Sound Transit 2 in 2008 and Sound Transit 3 in 2016.

We Love Our Light RailEyman claims to have collected 202,172 signatures for I-976 so far, which for all we know could be a made up number. He needs 350,000 by January 4th, 2019.

As it so happens, almost exactly twelve years ago, Eyman appeared on that very same Olympia street in a Darth Vader costume to announce that he had collected 142,613 signatures for I-917, which, like I-976, was an attempt to slash vehicle fees. A few weeks later, Eyman returned for his turn-in event, this time dressed up as Buzz Lightyear.

Not long after, the Secretary of State revealed that an insufficient number of signatures had been submitted to allow the initiative to pass a random sample check.

A subsequent complete check of all signatures found that the initiative did not have enough to qualify. Consequently, I-917 never appeared on the ballot.

Eyman declared publicly that he had submitted enough signatures to qualify, and alleged (without foundation) that some of the I-917 petitions had been “pilfered”.

In an attempt to prop up his baseless claim, Eyman circulated a letter that purported to show the weekly signature totals for I-917. Hilariously, the total for the week of Eyman’s event in Olympia contradicted the number that Eyman had given to reporters, prompting us to ask: Was Eyman lying then, or is he lying now? (Either way, Eyman lied.)

July 5th, 2018

Tim Eyman fails to qualify an initiative to the ballot for the third consecutive year

Statements & AdvisoriesThreat Analysis

This Friday, July 6th, is the deadline to submit signatures for initiatives to the people for 2018. For the third consecutive year, Tim Eyman won’t have any petitions to turn in, which means that Washingtonians will again be spared in November from having to vote on another destructive scheme cooked up by the lawbreaking initiative promoter.

The last time two or three years passed with no Eyman initiative on the ballot, it was the mid-1990s. In those days, Bill Clinton was the nation’s President, Gary Locke was Governor of Washington, and Slade Gorton was the state’s senior United States Senator.

Eyman has managed to stay in business for an awfully long time thanks to the support of some very rich men, notably the late Michael Dunmire and Bellevue real estate mogul Kemper Freeman, Jr., who have given Eyman millions to keep the gears of his initiative factory turning. But since 2015, Eyman has not been able to secure sufficient commitments from any of his wealthy benefactors to fund new schemes to wreck government.

On seven occasions between then and now — in November 2015, February 2016, June 2016, January 2017, July 2017, December 2017, and April of 2018 — Eyman has announced the launch of a new initiative. Each one has foundered.

To improve the odds for his eighth attempt — which, like three of the past four attempts, is a measure aimed at killing voter-approved transit investments — Eyman says he has cashed out his retirement in order to hire paid signature gatherers.

(Yes, he apparently hates the thought of our region getting the light rail, commuter rail, express bus, and bus rapid transit projects the voters voted for that much.)

Eyman has until the end of the year to fill up petitions for Initiative 976, which seeks to gut funding for Amtrak Cascades, King County Metro, and many other transit agencies as well as Sound Transit. NPI’s Permanent Defense opposes I-976 and has begun organizing an opposition coalition to defend transit funding for communities across Washington State.

In addition to cashing out his retirement, Eyman is also taking a financial hit from having chosen to make stonewalling in the extreme his legal defense strategy.

Eyman is facing four campaign finance enforcement lawsuits filed by the State, three filed in September of 2016 and one in March of 2017. The latter case, widely considered to the most significant of the four, is proceeding at a turtle’s pace thanks in part to Eyman’s determination to obstruct, stonewall, and delay at every turn.

On March 9th, 2018, Thurston County Superior Court Judge James Dixon held Eyman and his co-defendants in contempt of court for failing to produce financial records sought by Attorney General Bob Ferguson’s office. Eyman and his co-defendants have opted to pay the $250 daily fines rather than comply with the court’s orders.

On May 9th, 2018, they paid $40,500 in penalties. They remain in contempt of court.

The case is set for trial by jury this November… the same month that voters will decide who represents them in Congress and in the Washington State Legislature for the next two years, and the same month that voters will be deciding the fate of a bevy of statewide initiatives not sponsored by Eyman.

May 18th, 2018

Western students sound the alarm about I-976 in guest editorial

From the Campaign TrailThreat Analysis

If you’re approached by a petitioner hawking Tim Eyman’s I-976, decline to sign!

NPI’s Permanent Defense has been sounding the alarm over Eyman’s latest attempt to wipe out transit funding for several weeks now. Today, we got a boost from Western students Giovanna Orecchio, Anna Kemper and Rosa Rice-Pelepko, who wrote a guest editorial echoing that call to action for the Associated Students Review:

I-976 is the brainchild of conservative anti-tax activist Tim Eyman. Eyman makes his living off filing ballot initiatives, and is hardly the guy from whom we should take public policy advice. This year, he’s decided to gut the prime source of funding for the biggest public infrastructure project in the state: light rail.

Sound Transit 3 (light rail) gets most of its funding from car tab fees which are calculated based on the value of your car. If you drive a fancy new Mercedes, you pay more. If you drive a 2003 used Honda Civic, you pay less. All in all, it’s a decently equitable system. Instead, I-976 would make everyone pay a regressive flat fee of $30.

At the end of the day, I-976 will cut car tab fees for people with fancy cars and slash funding for our light rail expansion. That’s not fair, not smart, and not what we voted for. We encourage you to stand up for jobs, mass transit, and the will of the voters: don’t sign I-976!

A big thanks to Giovanna, Anna, and Rosa. We appreciate your efforts to educate your fellow Washingtonians about the grave threat this initiative represents to our communities. It is important to note that I-976 would also destroy funding for Amtrak Cascades, local bus service, and transportation projects at the city level in dozens of cities across the state.

April 16th, 2018

We’re ready to go to bat again to stop Tim Eyman’s I-976 and defend our voter-approved transit projects

Statements & AdvisoriesThreat Analysis

The freedom to travel light is a beautiful thing

Freedom of mobility — the freedom to travel light — is a beautiful thing.

More people need that freedom.

But if Tim Eyman succeeds with his fourth attempt in three years to eviscerate funding for Sound Transit, Amtrak Cascades, Metro bus service, and local transportation benefit districts around Washington State, sorely needed efforts to make freedom of mobility a reality for millions of Washingtonians a reality will be gravely harmed.

That’s why we’re springing into action to defeat Tim Eyman’s I-976, which Eyman filed last month and claimed he has money to pursue today. In the coming weeks, we will do everything we can to mobilize a coalition to successfully defend the multimodal transportation investments we’ve committed to.

For over sixteen years, Permanent Defense has worked in partnership with like-minded Washingtonians to safeguard the future of transit. That work continues in 2018.

When PD started in 2002, Washington’s largest urban center barely had any rail transit. Today, we have the Tacoma Link Streetcar, two Seattle Streetcar lines, a Sounder North commuter line, an expanded Sounder South commuter line reaching all the way to Lakewood, and a growing Link light rail spine consisting of sixteen stations, with three more due in 2021 and over a dozen due in 2023. In many communities, we also have expanded bus service, more bike lanes and bike paths, and additional sidewalks.

Washington State as a whole, meanwhile, has expanded Amtrak Cascades and given cities and counties tools for funding the transit and local road improvements they need… tools like transportation benefit districts, or TBDs.

All of these investments are now threatened by Tim Eyman and whichever wealthy benefactor has been so foolish as to give Eyman half a million dollars to do I-976.

This threat deserves to be met with immediate, vigorous opposition — and it will be.

To all Washingtonians who understand that a people-oriented transportation system can’t just be about more pavement for more cars, we invite you to join us.

How can you help? For starters, make a donation to Permanent Defense PAC, or sign up to receive NO on I-976 updates from Permanent Defense. By getting involved, you can be a part of protecting freedom of mobility in Washington State.

April 3rd, 2018

Don’t get scammed! Washingtonians, shun Tim Eyman’s I-977

Rethinking and ReframingStatements & AdvisoriesThreat Analysis

Well, that didn’t take long.

After failing to interest his wealthy benefactors in a proposal to force a vote on the idea of banning taxes on wealth — and after failing to convince Cooke Aquaculture to give him money to run a referendum campaign to force a vote on the state’s new law phasing out the farming of invasive fish — disgraced initiative promoter Tim Eyman has a new con.

Eyman revealed in an email this morning that he’s picked a new scheme to hawk that he hopes will return his initiative factory to relevance in 2019: Initiative 977, a measure that would apply the Public Records Act (as currently written) to the state Legislature.

Back in December, Eyman told KOMO 4 News and NPI that his initiative for 2018 would be a ban on capital gains taxes and income taxes.

But as we said at the time, that initiative was dead on arrival unless Eyman found wealthy benefactors to pony up the money to finance a signature drive. He didn’t, and has now given up any pretense of qualifying that scheme to the November 2018 ballot.

More recently, Eyman tried to interest Cooke Aquaculture in giving him money to front a referendum campaign that would have subject State Representative Kris Lytton’s bill phasing out the farming of invasive fish to a public vote. But Cooke’s Joel Richardson made it clear that’s not going to happen, telling The Undercurrent and The Seattle Times the company had no interest in being associated with Eyman — to Eyman’s deep disgust.

Having failed to get either of those schemes off the ground for 2018, Eyman appears to have thrown in the towel on making the November ballot this annum, which would mean that for the third consecutive year, Washingtonians will not see any initiative on their general election ballots with Eyman’s name on it. That has not happened since the 1990s.

Instead, Eyman is trying for 2019 with Initiative 977, an initiative to the Legislature. Eyman is apparently hoping that he can rebound with a measure that will appeal to a wider spectrum of Washingtonians than his usual destructive tax-cutting and tax-limiting schemes, which he has had no success trying to get on the ballot the last few years.

But no one should be fooled. Tim Eyman is not doing I-977 because he believes in the cause of open government. He’s doing it because he’s desperate to regain relevance, and he’s willing to latch on to any cause that might attract volunteer signature gatherers.

“I-977 is a scam that all Washingtonians should steer clear of,” said Northwest Progressive Institute founder and Executive Director Andrew Villeneuve, who has over sixteen years of experience organizing opposition to Tim Eyman initiatives. “Nothing good can come from working with Tim Eyman, no matter how noble the cause may seem.”

“Tim has proved, repeatedly, that he is unworthy of anyone’s trust. He lies with impunity to the press, the public, and his own supporters on a regular basis. He has taken money given to him for one initiative and secretly used it on another. He has steered money he said would be used on initiative campaigns into his own pockets for his personal use. And he has refused to cooperate when the authorities showed up to investigate.”

“Eyman’s I-977 petition design contains a headline that screams ‘What are they hiding?’ We could ask the same question about his initiative factory. What’s he hiding?”

“For years, Eyman has tried to obstruct the State’s investigation into his lawbreaking by withholding documents and records sought by the State to establish the truth as to what really happened. This pattern of obstruction continued even after the State filed four actions against Eyman in Superior Court following investigations by the PDC and the AG’s office, and it has now resulted in Eyman and his associates being held in contempt of court by Thurston County Superior Court Judge James Dixon.”

“Fortunately, Washington already has organizations like the Washington Coalition for Open Government (WCOG) and the Allied Daily Newspapers of Washington working on the cause of open, more transparent government,” Villeneuve noted.

“Tim Eyman is about the least qualified person in our state to helm an initiative that aims to make government more transparent.”

“Before and during the 2019 session, there will be opportunities for media, lawmakers, and activists alike to meet and propose ideas for making the Legislature’s business more transparent. That process, not Eyman’s I-977, is the way forward,” Villeneuve said.

March 14th, 2018

Daily Herald of Everett, AP join Seattle P-I in covering the news that Tim Eyman was held in contempt of court

In the Courts

Last Friday, Thurston County Superior Court Judge James Dixon found Tim Eyman in contempt of court in the main State of Washington v. Tim Eyman campaign finance enforcement case. It was a pretty significant development in the lawsuit, which was filed almost a year ago, but it only got covered by one major media outlet that day: the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, which ran a thorough story by columnist and reporter Joel Connelly.

Now, thankfully, The Herald of Everett has joined the party, with a lengthy article by columnist and reporter Jerry Cornfield that is also being carried in other publications like The Seattle Times and U.S. News & World Report via the Associated Press.

Cornfield opted to cover both the contempt finding and Eyman’s recently-announced suit seeking to block the Legislature’s I-940 compromise in the same piece; but the version distributed by the Associated Press omits the passages about Eyman’s lawsuit and only presents the news about Eyman being held in contempt.

That’s sure to irritate Eyman, who undoubtedly hoped that the filing of the lawsuit would bury the news of the contempt finding and get him ink, airtime, and pixels on his terms.

Although Attorney General Bob Ferguson did not issue a news release following Friday’s decision by Judge Dixon, he did comment on the record for Connelly and Cornfield.

Here are his comments on the contempt finding:

The court today found Tim Eyman and his co-defendants are in contempt because of their failure to fully comply with our discovery requests. Mr. Eyman has resisted our efforts to shine a light on his activities every step of the way. Hopefully, the contempt sanctions will finally motivate Mr. Eyman and his associates to comply with the court’s order to produce the requested documents, including relevant financial information.

Dixon’s written order has not yet been released, but when it is, we will publish a link to it.

March 9th, 2018

Tim Eyman’s stonewalling finally lands him in contempt of court

In the Courts

Today, Thurston County Superior Court Judge James Dixon held Tim Eyman in contempt of court for failing to turn over records needed to move forward in the State of Washington’s principal case against Eyman for serious violations of our public disclosure laws. Eyman and his co-defendants have each been ordered to pay $250 per day in penalties, dating back to February 16th, 2018, until their contempt is purged.

Northwest Progressive Institute founder and Executive Director Andrew Villeneuve, who has been organizing opposition to Eyman’s initiative factory for over sixteen years, suggested tougher penalties may be needed to put an end to Eyman’s stonewalling.

“The team at NPI thanks Judge Dixon for holding Tim Eyman in contempt of court for his endless stonewalling, but we think a fine of $2,000 per day, as proposed by Attorney General Bob Ferguson’s office, would have been more appropriate,” said Villeneuve.

“From the beginning, Eyman has done everything possible to impede and obstruct this investigation while disingenuously claiming to be cooperative. The timeline bears this out. Five years have now passed since the Public Disclosure Commission began investigating this matter, while two and a half years have passed since that investigation was handed off to Attorney General Bob Ferguson’s office. Here we are in March of 2018, with nearly a year having been passed since the State filed an action in Superior Court, and Eyman is still withholding records needed to proceed with the case. That’s unacceptable.”

The case number is 17-2-01546-34.

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