Jim West: Will he
stay, or will he go?

Six months after a newspaper outed Spokane, Wash., mayor Jim West and accused him of offering city jobs and perks to young men in exchange for sex, residents are nearing the end of a cringe-inducing saga. Ballots are already in the mail for a special December 6 election that will decide if West remains in office or is recalled. Officials are investigating whether he abused his office. Talk about Thanksgiving. After months of too much information on a host of topics, it is little wonder that some 60% of Spokane voters surveyed in a recent poll said they plan to vote West out of office. Many are just tired of the sordid saga. "I think Spokane has been suffering from a low-grade depression," said Tom Keefe, a local attorney who is spearheading the effort to recall West. And why not? Consider some of the details that have greeted residents on television or in The Spokesman-Review newspaper: --City councilwoman Cherie Rodgers said that West admitted to her at the beginning of the scandal that he masturbated in his office in City Hall while online. West said Rodgers had misunderstood him. --One young man accused West, 55, of offering him $300 to swim naked with him. --An investigator said West offered an $80,000-a-year job as city human resources director to a young gay man, identified as Witness No. 2, with no qualifications for the work, saying, "It's totally my choice." "That the mayor hoped for a sexual relationship with Witness No. 2 is evidenced by his continued sexual online chat with Witness No. 2 during the following [months]," the report said. A superior court judge decided recently that while the contents of West's city-owned laptop computer are a public record, releasing the photos of men West looked at on Gay.com would violate the privacy of those individuals. A lawyer for the newspaper asked if the photos could be released with a bar across the face to prevent identification, but Judge Richard Miller denied the request, to the relief of the West-fatigued. Helpfully, Miller did look at all 6,600 computer files from Gay.com on West's computer--and offered a description in court: "There are a large number of pictures of the upper torso, with no shirt on, to display their physiques," Miller said. About 100 pictures show male genitals or buttocks, while 11 showed real or simulated sex, Miller said. The newspaper's analysis of a computer disk that West voluntarily released showed that he trolled Gay.com to look up men who lived in cities he was planning to visit. The Spokesman-Review on May 5 began a series of stories that contended West offered young men city jobs in exchange for sex. Several young gay men told the newspaper they were offered perks, trips, jobs, and appointments by West. The newspaper also reported allegations by two men that West molested them decades ago when they were boys. West has vehemently denied those allegations. The recall election is based on a single count alleging that West misused his office by offering to help an 18-year-old man he met at Gay.com get a City Hall internship. The person the mayor thought was a young man was really a middle-aged computer expert hired by the newspaper. For the national media the West story was interesting primarily because he was a longtime conservative Republican state legislator who often voted against gay-friendly bills. Liberal comedian and author Al Franken calls West "the antigay gay mayor." "Not every antigay Republican is a repressed homosexual," Franken joked during an appearance in Spokane. "I just want to make that clear." West has declined to identity himself as gay or "psychoanalyze" himself or talk about when he knew he was attracted to men. He is not in therapy, he told the Associated Press, even though his private laundry has been hanging for months on the national clothesline. "I'm asexual more than anything else," West said, describing his life as work, TV, pizza, and beer. West makes a distinction between a dating Web site like Gay.com and pornography. "I never went online looking for pornography," West said. "I went to chat rooms, looking to meet people." To illustrate, West brought a sheaf of printouts from Gay.com to his interview with the AP, some of pictures of men in their underwear. "It's really embarrassing, talking about this," West said. West, who is divorced and childless, has also had to deal with a recurrence of colon cancer, which requires chemotherapy that has left him weak and nearly bald. Despite the controversy and the illness, West shows up at work in City Hall and makes public appearances as if nothing is happening. The recall election is strictly low-budget. City business leaders, who helped West win the most expensive state senate race in Washington history in 2002, have called on West to resign but are not contributing to the recall. The recall group doesn't have enough cash to run a television ad that a public relations company produced for free. Spokesman-Review editor Steve Smith recently wrote a controversial column essentially asking, "Where is the outrage?" Some of the outrage is directed at the newspaper, which critics say went too far in hiring an undercover operative and has published 145 news articles on the case. "Is this not a crusade?" West has asked. The mayor has so little money that his campaign to save his job has used old "Elect Jim West" yard signs instead of printing of new ones. The election will be certified on December 16, the day West would actually leave office if he is recalled. But even then the whole affair may not be over, West has said he will sue the newspapers regardless of the election outcome. (AP)