Search Results for: michael dunmire

State Sen. Adam Kline (representing my 37th LD) has a great guest column in today’s Seattle P-I, ripping Tim Eyman a new one:

Uh-oh. Hold onto your wallets, folks. Tim Eyman is back.

That’s right, the professional initiative salesman, who secretly pocketed hundreds of thousands in campaign contributions, began his most recent screed (“2006 initiative: Save our $30 tabs,” Dec. 29) by stating that nobody trusts politicians. The veteran of umpteen initiative campaigns proceeded to attack politicians for allowing additional fees for vehicle registration. No mention, of course, that the fees are still there because he failed to eliminate them in the drafting of his own initiative, which he falsely advertised as the “$30 Tab Initiative.” Talk about truth in advertising.! He could have fixed it again with Initiative 776, which he dubbed “$30 Car Tabs for Everyone.” But he didn’t. He blew it, not once but twice, and now he blames it on “politicians.”

To quote Eyman: “The arrogance is overwhelming.”

It should also be noted that Eyman’s scandals have finally caught up with him, at least in terms of his so-called “grass roots” support. Of the $593,000 he raised for Initiative 900, over $514,000 can from a single source: investment banker Michael Dunmire of Woodinville. All it takes to qualify for the ballot is a half million dollars worth of paid signatures, and with a deep pocketed sugar daddy like Dunmire, Eyman is virtually assured ballot access. But that won’t mean his latest $30 car tab initiative has popular support.

Indeed, in the wake of I-912’s resounding defeat, targeting the other third of the funding for the state transportation package doesn’t sound like such a sure thing to me. I just hope the business community puts up the money to help kill Eyman’s latest folly, putting a fork in his dying initiative career.

Andrew Villeneuve of NW Progressive Blog has a guest column in today’s Seattle P-I, rebutting yet another Tim Eyman $30 car tab initiative. [“Eyman out to destroy representative democracy.” Andrew wrote his column on behalf of Permanent Defense, but he is also the force behind the ever-useful Pacific NW Portal. Busy guy.

It’s been nearly three years since Eyman has managed to qualify one of his “grassroots” initiatives for the ballot, and I think it’s time to acknowledge that he has officially gone pro. For April, Timmy raised only $5,000 from his core group of contributers, but raked in another $75,000 from Woodinville “investment executive” Michael Dunmire, whose total contributions to I-900 now amount to $315,000 of the $415,000 raised thus far. Within the past year, Dunmire also gave $20,000 to Tim’s personal compensation PAC.

The good news is that Eyman’s grassroots fundraising has nearly dried up, his longtime contributors finally tiring of throwing good money after bad. The bad news is that there are still wealthy people stupid enough to bankroll Eyman’s follies. Last year Eyman spent $700,000 of gambling industry money to qualify I-892 for the ballot, but crapped out at the polls. Eventually, Dunmire will learn the same thing Eyman taught the gambling industry: his initiatives are a bad investment.

My guess is, Washington voters have learned that lesson as well.

Tim Eyman’s career as a grassroots initiative sponsor ended a couple years ago. (Actually, it probably ended with I-695, but let’s not get too technical.)

And so, when on election night, in an effort to deflect attention away from the spectacular defeat of his gambling industry backed Initiative 892, Tim announced to the media his plans for a performance audits initiative, I was more than comfortable predicting that he didn’t have a snowball’s chance of qualifying for the ballot without the financial support of a sugar daddy.

Well, as David Ammons of the AP reports, Timmy’s pinched his pigeon:

Michael Dunmire, 60, a wealthy investment executive from the Seattle suburb of Woodinville, has contributed nearly $240,000 to Eyman’s Initiative 900 and says more could be on the way. The initiative, now circulating for signatures, would require regular performance audits of state agencies and programs.

The Dunmires have also given $20,000 to Tim’s personal compensation PAC “Help Me Help Myself” (or whatever he calls it.)

Oh, I could go on and on about how Tim hasn’t qualified a grassroots initiative for the ballot in over two years, and about how people need to get it through their heads that he is just a shill for wealthy special interests, and about how Dunmire is just propping him up. But I think the expert quoted in the AP story sums it up best.

Eyman critic David Goldstein, a Seattle software designer and blogger, said Dunmire is “basically propping up Eyman. People should finally get it through their heads that Eyman is not some grassroots guy. He is a front for the monied special interests.

“It’s not scary. It’s disappointing. There is no way he gets on the ballot without a Sugar Daddy. Clearly, Eyman is no longer a grassroots activist in any way whatsoever. For two years running, he couldn’t get a grassroots initiative on the ballot.”

Now that guy knows what he’s talking about.

I hate to give incredibly wealthy right-wingers, eager to distort our political system, any free advice, but the Legislature just passed a very thorough performance audits bill, so perhaps you could have marshaled your resources a little more efficiently, huh? Hey, I know… how about financing a bill that legalizes discrimination against gays and lesbians!

Anyway, so now we know why Tim chose this dog of an initiative in the first place: Dunmire told him to… and the customer is always right. Sure, I-900 generates about as much excitement as a Pam Roach Pin-Up Calendar… and yeah, it’s almost totally superfluous now that the Legislature has passed its own performance audits bill. But Timmy knows a meal ticket when he sees one, and Dunmire is his a free pass to, um… less irrelevance.

My only hope is that Dunmire is as sharp a businessman as he claims to be, and eventually realizes what a crappy investment Tim Eyman really is.