Spokane Mayor Recalled in Sex Scandal

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http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20051207/ap_on_re_us/spokane_mayor

SPOKANE, Wash. - Mayor James E. West was recalled from office Tuesday in a special election over allegations he offered jobs and perks to young men he met in a gay Internet chat room.

West, 54, became the city's first elected chief executive to be ousted before his term expired.

With just over half of the 110,000 mail-in ballots counted, 38,718, or 65 percent, voted to recall West, while 20,681, or 35 percent, voted to retain him.

West must leave office when the election results are certified Dec. 16. He has spent 25 years in public office.

[merwin]

1. HELL YES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Sorry... that's just one less hypocritical republican in office in my state. I'm happy.

[Erika]

3. He used City computers for porn purposes

and bribed gays with city jobs.

I don't think his recall was due to his sexual orientation. It was his misuse of power.

[merwin]

8. I never said it was about his sexual orientation...

He was one of those traditional family values republican, and he gets caught with porn and bribing kids half his age for sexual favors.

That's hypocritical.

[donco6]

2. Wow. How appropros. eom

[KingFlorez]

4. Another Repuke bites the dust!

Yahoo!

[MissB]

5. It had nothing to do with him being gay.

It had everything to do with soliciting young guys on city computers. IIRC, some of the boys were under 18, right?

[Renew Deal]

7. I think so.

I think some of the guys were underage. That was the worst of it.

[f-bush]

18. Careful

The recall was established on the basis that he used city property for personal puposes during city time. It also stated that he offered employment and other government perks to those adult males willing to have sexual relationships with him. It did not alledge that he had or solicited sex with minors. That would be a criminal charge which the threshold of proof must be much greater.

That all siad, it wouldn't surprise me if he had. This guy is a phony repuke bastard that has been a thorn in the liberal side for a long time. A neanderthal whose recall IMHO is a service to the community.

God riddance Jimmy!

[MissB]

22. That would be the "IIRC" part.

Welcome to DU!

[Renew Deal]

6. Good

Another slimeball out of public service.

[Protagoras]

9. still it appears 35% of people are willing to retain

a govt official who gives out positions for sex over the internet.

Really...what does that say about the fitness of us as a species? There is a lot of pollution in our pool.

[VPStoltz]

10. Have any of you heard of Pam Roach?

After the flap about West started, she (who by the way is Repug and worked side by side with West in the WA State Leg.) claims he made a sexually explicity comment about her son who happened to be a page in Olympia at the time. I wrote to her and called her a hypocrite because she knew West had certain tendencies that Repug HATE but since he was a Repug she let it go even though it involved her son! What a puke. Turns out just months before, another of her sons was busted for meth or something.

[oregonindy]

11. Repuke spokane mayor RECALLED! too bad we cant do the chimp

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20051207/ap_on_re_us/spokane_mayor


SPOKANE, Wash. - Mayor James E. West was recalled from office Tuesday in a special election over allegations he offered jobs and perks to young men he met in a gay Internet chat room.

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West, 54, must leave his position when the election results are certified Dec. 16.

With just over half of the 110,000 mail-in ballots counted, 38,718, or 65 percent, voted to recall West, while 20,681, or 35 percent, voted to retain him.

"I said I'd abide by the will of the voters, obviously, and they've spoken," West told The Associated Press. "I'm at peace with their decision and disappointed."

West has spent 25 years in public office and is the city's first elected chief executive to be ousted before his term expired.

The campaign to recall him began last spring after the Spokesman-Review newspaper reported that West was a closeted homosexual who visited gay chat rooms using his city-owned laptop computer, and offered internships and other favors to young men he hoped to have sex with.

West, a former Boy Scout executive and sheriff's deputy, was elected mayor in 2003 after serving more than two decades as a conservative Republican in the state Legislature, where he voted against gay-friendly bills.

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 West believed was a high school senior was actually a computer expert hired by the newspaper to snare West.

West, who has not been charged with any crime, acknowledged making mistakes in his personal life but asked voters to give him a second chance.

City Council President Dennis Hession will become interim mayor until the council appoints someone to finish the two years remaining on West's term.

[niyad]

12. well, that's one rethuglican out of the way, and how many millions to go?

[miles55]

13. re:

Too bad, with that kind of character and personality he could have had a successful career one day in Washington.....

[wiley]

14. Does 35% of Spokane belong to NAMBLA

or something? Sorry but the fact that any RePuker still backed him after basically using public funds to sedcuce underage children to have sex with them shows the outrageous hypocrisy of the entire RePuker Party. Haven't heard of any Repukers calling for him "to be hung", as Michael Reagan said should be done to Howard Dean. I hope the scumbag pig didn't give any of his victims hepatitis C, hepatitis B, HIV, syphillis, gonorrhea, crabs, scabies or herpes.

[jamesinca]

17. You left genital warts from the list.

What is NAMBLA?

[Irreverend IX]

19. North American Man Boy Love Association

Shouldn't West be faced with some charges over this? Lesser men get prison time and sex offender status for this kind of thing. A cut-and-pasted "Washington State Sex Offender: Jim West" image would be great for that Republican Perverts page.

[wiley]

21. NAMBLA

Here's one take:
North American Man/Boy Love AssociationNorth American Man/Boy Love ...
NAMBLA is an pedophile organization that believes it is their right to have sex
with children. What did New York do about NAMBLA's non profit status.
www.angelfire.com/tx/reachme/NAMBLA.html -


And this from NAMBLA's website: I don't know of any lesbian, gay, feminist, or other liberation movements that co-operate with them, but here's who and what they say they are:

"WELCOME!  The North American Man/Boy Love Association (NAMBLA) was formed in 1978. It was inspired by the success of a campaign based in Boston's gay community to defend against a local witchhunt.

NAMBLA's goal is to end the extreme oppression of men and boys in mutually consensual relationships by:

* building understanding and support for such relationships;
* educating the general public on the benevolent nature of man/boy love;
* cooperating with lesbian, gay, feminist, and other liberation movements;
* supporting the liberation of persons of all ages from sexual prejudice and oppression.

Our membership is open to everyone sympathetic to man/boy love and personal freedom."

[Barrett808]

15. This is the guy who introduced legislation to ban sex between teens...

...when he was in the WA state legislature. He also wanted to have convicted sex offenders castrated.

[flamingyouth]

16. Good

[Catherine Vincent]

20. Good!

[ourbluenation]

23. Spokane Mayor recalled in Election (another rightie bites the dust)

http://www.krem.com/topstories/stories/krem2_120605_spokanemayorrecallresults.45c91679.html

Spokane mayor recalled in historic election

SPOKANE -- It was a day of reckoning for Spokane Mayor Jim West. The preliminary results of the historic mayor recall election as posted by the Spokane County Elections Office show "Yes" votes as 38,718 to 20,681 "No" votes.

snip

It has been a long road for all involved in the recall election. The scandal broke seven months ago when the Spokesman-Review published their investigative report on the mayor.

snip

West is accused of mis-using his office by offering a city job to a young man he met in an online chat room for gays.

West said he has made mistakes. He admits having relationships with young men but denies doing anything illegal. No criminal charges have been filed.

snip

Mayor was state Republican power

Spokane Mayor James West is a 54-year-old former Boy Scout executive and sheriff's deputy who was elected mayor in 2003.

Prior to that, he served 17 years as a conservative Republican state legislator who usually voted against gay-friendly legislation.

[uppityperson]

24. Yeah!!!!

pedophilia is just wrong.