Posted on 12/06/2005 9:39:34 PM PST by sonsofliberty2000
SPOKANE, Wash. (AP) A tally of mail-in votes shows Mayor James E. West has been recalled from office over allegations he used his office computer to woo young gay men over the Internet.
What exactly does recalled mean?
Good. He should have left on his own.
I'm ashamed to admit the man was once the Republican Leader in the Senate from my homestate.
Ahem. How young were these "young gay men" exactly?
It means the tribe has Spokane. :-)
"The only way I can lose this election is if I'm caught in bed with either a dead girl or a live boy." - Edwin W. Edwards
I'm not defending the departing mayor, but has a newspaper ever hired someone to entrap a gay Democrat? Again, I have no problem with the media going after exposing politicians with improprieties, but am nearly certain that any Democrat in his position would have been given a free pass.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_E._West
James Elton West was the mayor of Spokane, Washington. He was recalled during a special election held on December 6, 2005. He must leave his office by December 16, 2005.
West is a native Spokanite. West served in the U.S. Army after high school and graduated from Gonzaga University with a degree in Criminal Justice in 1978. In 1982 West joined the Washington Legislature as a Republican and served until 2003, when he became mayor of Spokane. While in the legislature he served as Senate Majority Leader. While in the legislature, West voted in favor of many anti-gay bills, including one that would have banned gays and lesbians from working in schools and day cares. While in the state legislature, he also proposed to make a law that would ban all sexual activity among persons under the age of 18 (the bill failed). In 1995, when West was a state senator, he advocated the impeachment of then-Gov. Mike Lowry for alleged sexual harassment.
West is involved in sexual scandals as of 2005. He is accused of sexually abusing two young boys in the 1970s and 1980s when he was a sheriff's deputy and Boy Scout leader. West called the molestation allegations "flat lies," but has admitted to having private online relationships in the past year through the Gay.com website. [1] West confirmed the accusations of meeting men over the Internet but denied the charges that he has sought out minors. [2] Using the name "Right-BiGuy" he also offered internships to young gay men (some of whom were just graduating from high school).
There have been calls for him to resign as a result of the allegations. West defended himself in a May 30, 2005, Today Show appearance. In a Spokane City Council meeting immediately afterwards a resolution requesting that he step down was passed unanimously (7-0), yet West has announced he intends to continue on as Mayor. On June 2nd, the Spokane County Republican Party, Washington State Republican Party, and Spokane County Democratic Chairwoman Katie Kirking called for West's resignation.[3] The FBI and a special city commission are investigating to determine if any laws or policies have been broken.[4] In early August 2005, the FBI searched West's home and seized his personal computers as part of its public corruption investigation.
Shannon Sullivan, a Spokane citizen with no prior legal experience, has filed a recall petition. A Superior Court Justice threw out two counts on the petition and upheld one, Mayor West then appealed that ruling to the State Supreme Court. On August 24, 2005 the State Supreme Court ruled in favor of Sullivan, allowing the recall to go forward. Because the State Supreme Court heard and ruled on this case in an emergency session during their summer recess, they did not file and publish a full opinion following their ruling.
Recall organizers collected over 17,000 signatures and submitted them to the elections office on September 21, 2005. The elections office has determined that more than 12,567 of those signatures are valid, so a special mail-in election was held on December 6, 2005 to determine whether Mayor Jim West is to remain in office.
As expected, West was recalled by voters with 65% in favor of ousting him to 35% in favor of keeping him as mayor. As a result of the outcome West has to resign from office on December 16, 2005, the day the final votes are certified by the Spokane County Auditor's office. The ouster of West also marks the the first time in the history of the city of Spokane that a sitting mayor has been voted out of office. His duties will be turned over to city council president Dennis Hession, who will serve as mayor for the remainder of West's term.
It mneans they will hold a new election to replace him, rather than wait till the end of his term
Well it's expected of Democrats to be amoral sleazebags. We have a higher standard though in the GOP.
It truly is sad that 35 per cent of the voters still think that it is okay what he did.
err... make that Eastern Washington.
Yeah, I was gonna say.....
Being from New York, its usually the folks out west that are more conservative and Republican. I'm not used to looking eastward, like you need to do in Washington state!
Someone should edit that; you don't "join" the legislature. In any case it seems remarkable that he was elected only 4 years after graduating from college.
laterping
Now that's hilarious!
I'm completely certain of that. Look at the way the RATs in the media handled former NJ Gov. McGreevey's gayness -- even though they knew he was gay, and were fairly sure that he had put his boy toy in charge of homeland security, they never wrote a peep about it.
You are the weakest link.
Goodbye!
In Blue States, most GOP candidates rank lower on the moral scale than their Dem counterparts. Why? Because very few of them are true Republicans: Those who run under the GOP banner have generally chosen their party because of "winnability". In other words, they'll do or say anything to win.
The true Republicans in Blue States have left.
and a cigar.
Bill Clinton, you have a call on line 1.
Note the perverts no longer resign when caught.
LOL!!!! < /wiping the tears from my eyes> Thank you. I did need a laugh this morning. All politicians these days are hacks. If they get to the point that they have support to run for office, they more than likely have skeletons in their closets. Republicans are no different than Democrats
Wild Wild West
Agreed. I'm glad it's over. West should have resigned a long time ago. I heard on the news this morning that there is a ten day transition to an interim mayor to fill out the rest of the term.
The subtle difference here though, is that the paper didn't only expose West's improprieties, they "became" the impropriety.
Turd Burglar alert
Bob Packwood?
That's right, Bob Peckerwood...
FWIW..the local paper is owned by a local rich family that just ONE WEEK before the "allegations" surfaced, settled a long dispute between them and the city over suspicious finacial manerverings on the part the the family....the city has lost millions and will be paying millions more to this elitist family becuase of very peculiar dealings, giving essentially the rich family a HUGE winfall.......it involved HUD funds, security fraud , etc....
so this up and up family has their paper investigate or one would say entrap West .....they admit they had two full time reporters on the "story" for two years...
this same paper never reported on the finacial dealings of its owners in any but a glancing view....no indept investigation needed I guess when your owners are the shisters....
I would never vote for any openly gay man....however, there has been NO PROOF of any wrong doing, and the only ones who have come forward I suspect were gay activists to begin with.....
I hope he sues the Spokesman Review for a half a billion.....
"western Washington" is Seattle....a notorious demoncrat hell hole where our esteemed Gov. "won" the election IMO via voting fraud after 3 vote "counts".....
Spokane is in eastern Washington...a totally differant area geographically, culturally, and finacially......as well as politically, although Tom Foley was here for 30 yrs and he was a Democrap, and coincidentally, also rumored to be "gay" FWIW......
Uh huh huh, you said "wood."
That's certainly the case here in NC.
Great!
"...am nearly certain that any Democrat in his position would have been given a free pass."
Oh, you mean like they're doing (or rather NOT doing) with Sen. Clinton?
(I'd love to be a D.C. whistleblower!)
ROFLMAO!! That is excellent.
If this guy had been a Democrat he would not have been recalled.
Recalled is now his middle name.
His Governorship was Terminated...
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