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04-16-2004, 01:36 PM
Eyman Cries Foul Over Opposition Tactics (http://www.komotv.com/stories/30759.htm)
April 12, 2004
By KOMO Staff & News Services
OLYMPIA - The Public Disclosure Commission, acting on a complaint by an outraged Tim Eyman, will probe whether opponents broke election laws with a telephone campaign to discourage voters from signing initiative petitions.
Eyman, who is sponsoring two tax-cut initiatives, sought the review after learning that foes were using telephone calls in Pierce County last week to warn that paid signature-gatherers could be identity thieves.
Eyman critics said Monday the phone-bank operations will expand to other locales, and will be reported to the state if regulators decide that is necessary.
The story was first reported by The News Tribune of Tacoma on Sunday.
The Washington State Council of Police Chiefs and Sheriffs and the Washington State Council of County and City Employees insisted that the messages weren't meant to deceive people or deter them from signing specific initiatives.
Pat Thompson of the employees' union said the phone campaign didn't trigger reporting laws because it didn't specify any particular initiative.
The News Tribune reported that the two groups conceded that the two-day campaign was at least partially motivated by opposition to tax rebel Eyman, who's pushing two property tax-cutting initiatives for the November ballot.
"We are going to lose officers and deputies because of this," said Bill Hanson, executive director of the police and sheriffs council, a group that lobbies for rank-and-file cops.
It was Hanson's voice that was on the message, and he insists there was nothing inappropriate about it. He did not immediately return telephone calls for comment Monday.
"This was strictly a nonpartisan effort aimed at making people more careful with their signatures," said Chris Dugovich, head of the 14,000-member council of local employees.
He said the critics haven't decided to mount a full-scale "decline to sign" campaign against Eyman's initiatives. If that happens, the expenses would be reported by an opposition committee, which has not been formed yet, he said.
"We always have and always will comply with disclosure laws," Dugovich said in an interview Monday.
Eyman, in an e-mail to the Public Disclosure Commission on Monday, said the critics are illegally spending thousands of dollars to undercut his proposed initiatives without properly reporting it.
"What's sickening is to have the parasites in the public employee unions using law enforcement officers in their quest to block voters from exercising their First Amendment rights," Eyman wrote reporters in a separate e-mail.
"Such sleaze and slime from union President Chris Dugovich and his lawless band of anti-First Amendment criminals is absolutely appalling and frightening."
The critics should be registered as an opposition campaign and their expenses, estimated at $12,000 so far, should be duly reported, Eyman said.
Eyman, who has had his own run-ins with the commission for campaign reporting violations, told the panel, "I ask you to show them that both sides are required to abide by the public disclosure laws of this state."
The commission will begin a preliminary inquiry and may lead to a formal investigation, said spokesman Doug Ellis.
Without discussing the case specifically, Ellis said the campaign disclosure law requires reporting as soon as a group begins spending for or against a proposed ballot measure.
So-called "decline to sign" campaigns have become a part of many initiative campaigns in recent years, Ellis said in an interview.
Eyman's proposals target the state and local portions of the property tax. The local measure would cut the tax by 25 percent, exempting voter-approved levies, such as school levies and 911 taxes.
The phone campaign was developed by the county and city employees council, a union representing more than 14,000 public employees.
Dugovich told The News Tribune his group spent about $12,000 on the effort. Pierce County was targeted because its voters supplied many of the signatures for Initiative 747, which capped property tax increases two years ago.
Eyman critic Andrew Villenuve, a student who runs the anti-Permanent Defense, called Eyman's outrage "just laughable. Here's Eyman saying this phone campaign is appalling when he's hiring these mercenaries to go out and collect his signatures so he can buy his way onto the ballot again.
"Direct Democracy is now a for-profit business, signatures are a commodity and Eyman goes berserk when someone dares to warn people about the dangers of the process."
April 12, 2004
By KOMO Staff & News Services
OLYMPIA - The Public Disclosure Commission, acting on a complaint by an outraged Tim Eyman, will probe whether opponents broke election laws with a telephone campaign to discourage voters from signing initiative petitions.
Eyman, who is sponsoring two tax-cut initiatives, sought the review after learning that foes were using telephone calls in Pierce County last week to warn that paid signature-gatherers could be identity thieves.
Eyman critics said Monday the phone-bank operations will expand to other locales, and will be reported to the state if regulators decide that is necessary.
The story was first reported by The News Tribune of Tacoma on Sunday.
The Washington State Council of Police Chiefs and Sheriffs and the Washington State Council of County and City Employees insisted that the messages weren't meant to deceive people or deter them from signing specific initiatives.
Pat Thompson of the employees' union said the phone campaign didn't trigger reporting laws because it didn't specify any particular initiative.
The News Tribune reported that the two groups conceded that the two-day campaign was at least partially motivated by opposition to tax rebel Eyman, who's pushing two property tax-cutting initiatives for the November ballot.
"We are going to lose officers and deputies because of this," said Bill Hanson, executive director of the police and sheriffs council, a group that lobbies for rank-and-file cops.
It was Hanson's voice that was on the message, and he insists there was nothing inappropriate about it. He did not immediately return telephone calls for comment Monday.
"This was strictly a nonpartisan effort aimed at making people more careful with their signatures," said Chris Dugovich, head of the 14,000-member council of local employees.
He said the critics haven't decided to mount a full-scale "decline to sign" campaign against Eyman's initiatives. If that happens, the expenses would be reported by an opposition committee, which has not been formed yet, he said.
"We always have and always will comply with disclosure laws," Dugovich said in an interview Monday.
Eyman, in an e-mail to the Public Disclosure Commission on Monday, said the critics are illegally spending thousands of dollars to undercut his proposed initiatives without properly reporting it.
"What's sickening is to have the parasites in the public employee unions using law enforcement officers in their quest to block voters from exercising their First Amendment rights," Eyman wrote reporters in a separate e-mail.
"Such sleaze and slime from union President Chris Dugovich and his lawless band of anti-First Amendment criminals is absolutely appalling and frightening."
The critics should be registered as an opposition campaign and their expenses, estimated at $12,000 so far, should be duly reported, Eyman said.
Eyman, who has had his own run-ins with the commission for campaign reporting violations, told the panel, "I ask you to show them that both sides are required to abide by the public disclosure laws of this state."
The commission will begin a preliminary inquiry and may lead to a formal investigation, said spokesman Doug Ellis.
Without discussing the case specifically, Ellis said the campaign disclosure law requires reporting as soon as a group begins spending for or against a proposed ballot measure.
So-called "decline to sign" campaigns have become a part of many initiative campaigns in recent years, Ellis said in an interview.
Eyman's proposals target the state and local portions of the property tax. The local measure would cut the tax by 25 percent, exempting voter-approved levies, such as school levies and 911 taxes.
The phone campaign was developed by the county and city employees council, a union representing more than 14,000 public employees.
Dugovich told The News Tribune his group spent about $12,000 on the effort. Pierce County was targeted because its voters supplied many of the signatures for Initiative 747, which capped property tax increases two years ago.
Eyman critic Andrew Villenuve, a student who runs the anti-Permanent Defense, called Eyman's outrage "just laughable. Here's Eyman saying this phone campaign is appalling when he's hiring these mercenaries to go out and collect his signatures so he can buy his way onto the ballot again.
"Direct Democracy is now a for-profit business, signatures are a commodity and Eyman goes berserk when someone dares to warn people about the dangers of the process."