Names on Spokane (R) mayor recall petition certified (sex scandal)

[UpInArms]

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2002547723_west08m.html

SPOKANE — Signatures collected by organizers of a recall vote of Mayor Jim West in a City Hall sex scandal were certified yesterday, sending the issue to the voters in a special election in December.

County elections workers stopped checking names and addresses on petitions Thursday after counting 12,684 signatures, 117 more than needed, Elections Supervisor Paul Brandt said.

The city of Spokane will pay the estimated $140,000 to $160,000 cost of the Dec. 6 special election, Dalton said.

West is accused of using his office to set up dates with young men.

...more...

Spokane mayor faces recall vote after sex scandal

http://today.reuters.com/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=domesticNews&storyID=2005-10-07T192805Z_01_DIT770077_RTRUKOC_0_US-SPOKANE.xml

SPOKANE, Washington (Reuters) - Citizens outraged by revelations that the mayor of Spokane sought sexual liaisons with young men have succeeded in gathering enough signatures to force a recall vote, an election official said on Friday.

The signature-gathering effort against Mayor James West was launched after the Spokane Spokesman-Review published a series of investigative articles last spring quoting two men who claimed West had sexually abused them 30 years ago when he was their Boy Scout leader.

<snip>

West, who was elected Spokane mayor in 2003 and has also served as a Republican leader in the state legislature, has supported bills limiting the ability of homosexuals to work in state jobs in which they would have contact with children.

<snip>

The FBI is investigating the allegations. FBI agents seized his city computer and are analyzing its contents.

West's attorneys are going to court next week to try to prevent public disclosure of the computer's contents, which they admit includes "highly offensive private material."

...more...

[ChairmanAgnostic]

1. not because he was gay, but because he misused his office, right?

Wasn't he also publically against gays?
what a hippo-elephantine-crite.

[UpInArms]

3. here's an older article

http://www.seattleweekly.com/features/0519/050511_news_mossback.php

It's almost too good to be true: One of the most powerful, antigay Republican politicians in Washington turns out to be gay. The Spokesman-Review reports that Spokane Mayor Jim West spent time cruising the Internet for young men, apparently from City Hall.

He denies having told a City Council member that he masturbated during these online exchanges. "I didn't masturbate in my office," he insists with Clintonian specificity. He did, however, admit to masturbating with an 18-year-old date in a parking lot.

Further, the outed pol complains, "I am being destroyed because I am a gay man, which is fine. I've been in public life. I can accept that. Because I am a gay man, because of this double life, it has been hell."

So a new poster child for gay rights is born.

It is tempting to become distracted by the monumental hypocrisy of it all, coming from one of the state's chief gay persecutors. Jim West is a right-winger who has actually enjoyed legislative gay bashing. Not only that, in 1990 he tried to outlaw all sexual contact between teenagers, including oral sex and heavy petting. Maybe his legislative actions were a kind of cry for help written in lipstick on the mirror of law: "Stop me before I have sex with teens again!" We'll let his shrink sort that out.

...more...

[salin]

2. he should be run out of town for making them spend $$ for a recall

Dude - you shouldn't keep your job after you use your office to promise jobs to people as part of your solicitation for sex activities. Resign and save the city the $$.

[EST]

4. Politicians, and I'm sorry to have to include many dems

as well, have no consciences and no real public spiritedness. They see politics as a game, with no real world consequences.

[Bruce McAuley]

5. He's only holding out for a bigger pension...

The longer West can stay in office, the larger his state funded retirem,ent will be. He was a cop for years, then in the legislature, and now in the mayor's office in Spokane. He will be essentially triple dipping for his retirement money, and every day he stays in office he gets a bigger retirement.
Won't make much difference, he's got cancer and is looking older every time I see him on TV.
He's a hypocritical jerk(off). Many questions remain about his earlier career as a cop and whether he abused young boys then.
He's a goner, the election will be in December and he's outta there as mayor for sure.

Bruce

[merwin]

6. West's attorneys are going to court next week to try to prevent public

disclosure of the computer's contents, which they admit includes "highly offensive private material."

Uh, it's a PUBLIC computer. Unless there's top secret government information on that computer (which I highly doubt there is), then that computer and everything on it belongs to the citizens of Spokane.

[Diane R]

7. That's true.

He is claiming that he should not be removed from office because there is no proof that he has abused the power of his position and used city resources to troll for young boys. And, at the same time, he is actively seeking to keep the public from seeing the content of city owned files that he deems 'highly offensive'.

Thank god he is a republican.