On February 2nd during a committee hearing on Senate Bill 6754, a bill that concerns the release of names and addresses on initiative petitions, Senate 'Gov Ops' Chair Darlene Fairley (D-Lake Forest Park) said some things that weren't true.
After doing so, I sent her the following email:
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From: Tim Eyman [mailto:tim_eyman@comcast.net]
Sent: Tuesday, February 02, 2010 8:21 PM
To: 'fairley.darlene@leg.wa.gov'
Subject: Madam Chair, you were misinformed
You claimed in your hearing today on 2 initiatives, we made copies of petitions. We did not. ("I heard that Mr. Eyman got the signatures for everything for two whole years, that makes sense." watch it on TVW here -- fast forward to 00:32:08 - 00:32:20) In our lawsuit in Thurston County court, we included a sworn declaration that we DO NOT photocopy petitions or create databases of people who sign petitions. Our lawsuit concerned stopping a paid lobbyist (Bryan Wahl) who asked for the names and addresses of 11 'conservative' initiatives, 9 that were ours, 2 that were not. Here is an excerpt from the sworn affidavit of Mike Fagan, one of the members of our group:
My responsibility in our group is to process, manage, count, and keep secure the petitions mailed to us. I take my role very seriously. That's what makes me so incensed that we received this email from the Secretary of State on September 28th:
As our original brief in the federal case said, there is no expectation of privacy, and sponsors and many others see the names and addresses. (I would assume that you yourself make email lists, solicitation lists, etc., with your petition sheets.) - see attached email.
We do no such thing and I am deeply offended by the accusation. Nine of the 11 initiatives that are about to be released by Secretary Reed, we did not make email lists, solicitation lists, and we did not even photocopy the petitions (the other two initiatives weren't ours).
I would appreciate it if you'd correct the record on this issue.
You were also misinformed about the state GOP - they've never asked for petitions on initiatives ("My understanding is that one of the political parties, not mine, has requested several times the signatures for initiatives and referendums." watch it on TVW here -- fast forward to 00:38:00 - 00:38:20). 2006-2009 are the only years that petitions were made available to public records requests.
-- END --
Here is a list of the only people who have EVER received petitions from the Secretary of State in our entire state history:
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From: Galarza, Brenda [mailto:bgalarza@secstate.wa.gov
Sent: Monday, September 14, 2009 9:35 AM
To: Tim Eyman
Subject: Petition Orders
Tim,
Here is the history I have for petition orders. Our records only go back to 2002 so there may have been some prior to this. (Message from Eyman: these were the only ones -- the policies of all previous Secretaries of State, two Attorney General opinions, a Thurston County court ruling in 1973, and State Archives all confirm that the first release of names and addresses on petitions was done in 2006)
Oct 2006 - Kris Hanselman I-917 and I-920 - We rescanned signatures with side notes of I-917 and charged $4642 for CD's
Jan 2007 - Roy Ruffino I-917 and I-920 - Copy of Kris Hanselman order CD's
Oct 2007 - WA Conservation Voters I-937 - 22 Microfilm Rolls
Jul 2008 - Narda Pierce I-1029 - 7 CD's
Mar 2009 - WA Realtors I-933 - 20 Microfilm Rolls
Jul 2009 - NEA Charles Hasse I-1033 - 6 CD's
Jul 2009 - WhoSigned.org Brian Murphy R-71
Jul 2009 - Toby Nixon R-71
Regards,
Brenda Galarza
Office of the Secretary of State
Records/Public Disclosure Officer
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Despite being informed of the facts and asked to correct the record, 13 days later Darlene Fairley, on the Senate floor, said: "As a matter of fact, the fellow who's famous, or infamous, for doing initiatives and referendums routinely asks for a copy of the signatures of everybody who's signed those initiatives and referendums, he uses them as a money-making thing, whatever he does with them. And other parties, not my party, the other party, routinely also asks for copies of those signatures. So they've been out there for years, and they've copied them and used them." watch it on TVW here -- fast forward to 00:54:30 - 00:55:00).
Senator Fairley, please stop saying these things, they are demonstrably untrue, and please apologize to me, the Republican Party, the public, and the press for this.
Sincerely, Tim Eyman
If you'd like to encourage Senator Fairley to respond, she can be reached here: fairley.darlene@leg.wa.gov, 360-786-7662 -- make sure to 'cc' me at tim_eyman@comcast.net
I do find it interesting that she would make such claims on things that can be verified through public records searches (or a simple email to the state).
But then, who is going to call her on the carpet for this? I wouldn't be surprised if most of her constituency would believe any negative claim about the GOP, regardless of the veracity or verifiability of the claim. And is the media going to spend time looking into false claims by a single state legislator for a bill they most likely support?
Posted by: erich on February 19, 2010 08:50 AM