Mike Salsbury/The Olympian
Monte Benham holds Permanent Offense's checkbook, which board members took from Tim Eyman during a reorganization of the group. Eyman remains on the group's board with Benham, Mike Fagan and Jack Fagan, but in a reduced role. In the background, former Olympia City Councilman Gil Carbone delivers an anti-Permanent Offense message. The sign reads, "When Eyman Benham leads -- greed wins!"

Initiative campaign benches former star

Eyman takes back seat as Initiative 776 has Capitol kickoff

BRAD SHANNON, THE OLYMPIAN

Originally published Wednesday, February 13, 2002

OLYMPIA -- Tim Eyman still controls more than $200,000 in campaign funds paid to his private company, but his colleagues in Permanent Offense have taken the political campaign committee's checkbook away from him.

"I am the quarterback now," said Monte Benham, the new leader of Initiative 776 and Permanent Offense, the political action committee that has pushed several initiatives to success.

Campaign accounts were changed Monday, a day after meeting with Eyman and other campaign board members at Eyman's home, Benham said Tuesday.

Eyman, who used to be the star of the show, will stay "on the team" but play a reserve role as "offensive coordinator" to the new I-776 campaign, Benham told reporters in an Olympia news conference. Whether Eyman rejoins the campaign in a higher profile, Benham said, it's "up to Tim."

Eyman always painted himself as the unpaid hero fighting for lower taxes, but he stunned his colleagues and the public on Feb. 3 when he admitted publicly that he'd taken $45,000 for his own use and planned to take another $157,000.

Although he'd created his own for-profit company, he always insisted it was so he could keep the money available for "contingencies" such as new campaigns or legal expenses to defend old initiatives.

The state Public Disclosure Commission is investigating to see if campaign disclosure laws were violated, and Seattle lawyers with a group calling itself Permanently Offended say they will go to court to sue Eyman over the violations if authorities don't.

Benham refused to say exactly what conditions he and the other Permanent Offense PAC board members are putting on Eyman besides taking away the campaign checkbook. But he dropped strong hints that Eyman will have to give back the more than $200,000 he funneled to his privately owned company, Permanent Offense Inc.

The announcement about Eyman's campaign role came as Benham and two other I-776 team members -- Jack and Mike Fagan of Spokane -- formally kicked off their signature-gathering campaign. They face an early July deadline for collecting nearly 200,000 valid signatures of registered voters to qualify their measure for the November ballot.

I-776 would cap all vehicle license tab fees at $30 per year.

The group hasn't decided whether to pursue another Eyman goal, to file another initiative setting a 1 percent limit on yearly increases in local governments' overall taxing power. They also haven't decided whether to push Benham's idea of an initiative to require teaching about the U.S. and state Constitutions in public schools.

Political observers were skeptical that the group, which appointed Benham's son, Royce, as campaign treasurer, has done enough to repair the damage caused by Eyman's revelations.

"They didn't have anybody to send in except the cheerleader or the water boy. That's what we have today," mocked Olympia resident Gil Carbone, who stood alone with a sign to protest the latest Permanent Offense campaign. Carbone is a retired educator and former Olympia City Council member who protested the last time Eyman showed up at the Secretary of State's Office.

"When Benham leads, greed wins," the sign declared, with Eyman's name crossed out and Benham's added. "Somebody needs to speak out against this nonsense that Permanent Offense represents. Not enough people have done it," Carbone said. "I'm doing it. I'm urging other people to do it. ... You don't have to have a big bank account to say when someone is way off base."

"The organization will live on beyond Tim Eyman, but it's damaged," said Carolyn Long, director of Washington State University's public affairs program on the Vancouver campus. "I would say, unless he does pay the money back, it's a potential liability for the organization."

Benham remained upbeat, saying $20,000 in new contributions rolled in to the campaign last week. Included was $5 from a "little old lady from Puyallup" who urged them to fight on, Mike Fagan said.

Eyman responds

Initiative promoter Tim Eyman issued the following statement Tuesday through his anti-tax team members:

"For several years, we have worked incredibly hard to build a team of talented and dedicated people. We have always been, and always will be, a team. All of you will have the opportunity to see this team shine over the next few months.

"Thousands of our supporters have contacted us by e-mail, fax and phone asking how they can help. We ask you to do what you've always done: work a hard as you can to get Initiative 776, '$30 Car Tabs for Everyone,' qualified for the ballot.

"The press and our opponents will make that goal very difficult. But the press and our opponents have never understood that our thousands of supporters were always the leaders of this movement and Monte, Jack, Mike and I were the followers."

On the Web:

- Permanent Offense

Sound Off at TheOlympian.com: Is Mr. Eyman's political career over?

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