Posted on 12/07/2005 12:56:00 PM PST by ovrtaxt
SPOKANE — Mayor Jim West was recalled from office Tuesday in a special election prompted by news accounts that he offered City Hall jobs and perks to young men he met in a gay Internet chat room.
In the city's first all-mail election, 38,718, or 65 percent, voted "yes" for recall, while 20,681, or 35 percent, voted to retain West, 54, who became the city's first elected chief executive to be ousted before his term expired.
Just more than half of the 110,000 ballots mailed to voters in the city were counted in the first batch of results released Tuesday night.
"I said I'd abide by the will of the voters, obviously, and they've spoken," West said. "I'm at peace with their decision — and disappointed."
West, a Republican former state legislator who voted against gay-friendly bills, must leave office when the election results are certified Dec. 16. He has spent 27 years in public office.
The mayor said he planned a news conference today to "prepare to make the transition and pass the baton."
The Spokesman-Review newspaper conducted an undercover investigation and reported in a series of articles beginning May 5 that West was a closeted homosexual who visited gay chat rooms on his city-owned laptop computer and offered internships and other favors to young men he hoped to have sex with.
City Council President Dennis Hession, first elected to the council in 2002, will become mayor pro tempore until the council appoints a replacement for the remaining two years of West's term.
West was elected mayor in 2003 after serving more than two decades as a conservative state legislator.
The recall petition contended West used his political office for personal benefit by offering a city internship to someone he thought was an 18-year-old man he had met in a gay online chat room and with whom he had sexually explicit chats.
One person he thought was a high-school senior was really a computer expert hired by the newspaper to snare West.
West has not been charged with any crime.
You are right...HGTV is riddled with pink teamers when it comes to decorating and crap...but they arent saying anything like "This is a pretty blue curtain...reminds me of my boyfriend...*growl* (puke)"
Republican-saw it after I posted.
Log Cabin Republican Chairman?
If you want on/off the ping list let me and little jeremiah know.
My guess is that he was a self-described "fiscal conservative" but a RINO to the rest of us. The word "conservative" is used far too many times in this article.
Why would Seattle voters be involved in a SPOKANE mayoral vote?
Caught with his pants down.
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