The Washington
State supreme court has been asked for an emergency review
of the recall campaign against Spokane, Wash., mayor James
West, who is embroiled in a gay sex scandal. West, on
the eve of the high court's summer recess, appealed a
lower court decision that allowed the recall to
proceed. Recall supporters want the matter heard
immediately, hoping they can begin gathering signatures.
Shannon Sullivan, the unemployed woman who has
found herself the unlikely leader of the effort to
recall the city's most powerful politician, is also
setting up a nonprofit corporation to handle the money she
is receiving from supporters, said Mark Hodgson, a
Spokane lawyer who has started providing her with free
legal advice. "Things are happening quickly," Hodgson
said of Sullivan's request to the supreme court.
Geoffrey Crooks, the supreme court commissioner
in Olympia, said the request for a quick review had
not arrived yet. "It's not going to happen in the next
week," Crooks said Wednesday. The supreme court is due
to begin its summer recess at the end of this week and not
return to hear cases until September 13. West's
opponents fear that his appeal means the recall cannot
be put on a ballot until next year.
According to a poll conducted for KXLY-TV and
The Inlander weekly newspaper and broadcast
late Thursday, 61% of Spokane residents want West to
resign, while 31% do not want him to, and 8% are
undecided. The poll, by Strategic Research Associates,
questioned 600 people who live in the Spokane city
limits and had a margin of error of plus or minus four
percentage points. The Spokane Regional Chamber of
Commerce, the city council, and the state Republican Party
have all urged West to resign. (AP)