TACOMA — An investigation of whether Tim Eyman broke election laws is in the hands of the state attorney general.
The Public Disclosure Commission voted unanimously Thursday to refer the three-year-old case to Attorney General Bob Ferguson’s office to consider criminal charges or civil penalties more than the PDC can levy.
The motion that won approval came from Commissioner Anne Levinson of Seattle and stated that Eyman appears to have acted intentionally to hide the sources and uses of campaign money from the public.
The motion called for Ferguson’s office to expand the investigation beyond the 2012 transactions that PDC investigators examined closely. The board referred the case at the request of its staff and after hearing from Sherry Bockwinkel, whose complaint started the investigation.
“It didn’t stop in 2012 and it certainly didn’t begin there,” Bockwinkel told the board, noting that this year’s Eyman-backed campaign for Initiative 1366 contracted with the same company to manage signature gathering, Citizen Solutions, as 2012’s Initiative 1185. “It’s happening all over again,” she said.
Eyman’s attorney, Mark Lamb, issued a statement calling Tacoma resident Bockwinkel “a disgruntled former vendor personally attacking my client and a business rival that displaced her in the signature gathering industry,” referring to Eyman and Citizen Solutions. Lamb said he believes Eyman will prevail once he can fully defend himself. “The reality is my client has not had an opportunity to present his side of the story,” he wrote.
PDC investigator Tony Perkins said Eyman and his allies have refused to comply with most of the subpoenas the agency issued to uncover evidence, slowing the investigation.
Investigators allege that Eyman appears to have authorized payments to Citizen Solutions knowing the firm would send part of the money back to him for his personal use.
