Michael Dunmire, Tim Eyman's $1 million-plus donor, says legislative arrogance has pushed him to bankroll Eyman yet again. Eyman circulated a message from Dunmire today saying he would donate $250,000 to Eyman's Taxpayer's Protection Initiative even though he had earlier, and repeatedly, said he would not fund political campaigns this year.

But he says the Legislature's moves to regulate the initiative business pushed him to give:

I am offended by their arrogance, their ignorance, their mistreatment of citizens, and their disrespect for the Constitution. Their shameless actions have moved me to do something meaningful to fight back. I cannot and will not ignore their assault on the citizens' initiative process without a constructive response.

Dunmire said he'd give $120,000 immediately and urged Eyman supporters to also donate to the campaign. He also said that there will be an effort to "educate the public about Olympia's all-out effort to destroy the initiative process" but he didn't offer any specifics.

Last year was a tough one for Eyman Inc. He failed to get enough signatures for a referendum on the gay rights bill, an effort where he was criticized by religious conservatives for being secretive and falling through on commitments. And he had an embarrassing episode with a tax-cutting initiative where he said, with no good evidence, that petitions were pilfered.

Many thought it would be the end of Eyman. I figured it wouldn't since Dunmire made clear at the time that those failures wouldn't dissuade him from giving Eyman more money. And sure enough, after the election, he gave $100,000 to the "compensation fund" that pays Eyman and his partners.

But Eyman was clearly weakened, and many on the left were celebrating what they said would be his demise. They left nasty comments here saying that the media alone was propping up Eyman and he didn't deserve the attention. But if he's such a low-watt player these days, why would Democrats need so many bills clearly designed to weaken his efforts?

I don't know if Dunmire really would have resisted Eyman's entreaties and not given him any money this year. But I think Democrats have done more to restore Eyman to prominence than anything he could have done himself.

And they may not get their bills. House Speaker Frank Chopp told reporters this afternoon that he doesn't support the full-scale move to regulate the initiative business. He says he's worried about fraud, but said he isn't sure the bills aimed at solving that problem would really work.