Let's Go Washington apes Tim Eyman by pretending to make a big announcement about its next moves to garner media coverag

Right wing mega-millionaire Brian Heywood took another page out of his predecessor Tim Eyman’s playbook today by circulating a press release to Washington State media outlets that was all dressed up to look like a big announcement about his next moves, but in reality contained no real news at all and was just a ploy for coverage.

It’s the sort of thing that pitchman Tim Eyman used to do all the time back when he had an initiative factory during the late 1990s, 2000s, and 2010s, except Eyman would go to even greater lengths to try to build suspense and generate interest. For example, Eyman would send an email missive teasing a really big announcement early the following week, breathlessly billing it as something you’re not going to want to miss, and then the big announcement would turn out to be a non-event — like Eyman and his cohorts giving a Republican legislator an award for being reflexively anti-tax.

Or, Eyman would announce that he would be making another “announcement.”

Famously, Eyman showed up at the Secretary of State’s Elections Annex twenty years ago next month, dressed as Darth Vader, in a Hail Mary stunt to promote a signature drive on the verge of failure. Reporters thought Eyman was showing up to turn in signatures, but he wasn’t — he was only performing for the cameras to get media coverage.

https://www.nwprogressive.org/weblog/2026/05/lets-go-washington-apes-tim-eyman-by-pretending-to-make-a-big-announcement-about-its-next-moves-to-garner-media-coverage.html