West owes $85,000 in legal bills over recall
Perhaps if he had just resigned, he wouldn't be in such deep debt. Stupid Republican a--holes... always making things harder on themselves as well as the good citizens and voters of this great country. Link.

By JOHN K. WILEY
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

SPOKANE -- Mayor Jim West owes nearly $85,000 in legal bills from his fight to remain in office after a City Hall sex scandal prompted a recall effort, campaign finance documents show.

Public Disclosure Commission documents filed late Tuesday by the Committee for Spokane's Progress show the anti-recall effort raised a total of $650 from five Spokane residents, but listed more than $85,000 in debts, mostly owed to lawyers who unsuccessfully tried to quash the recall petition.

"I've expected to pay my own bills from the beginning," West, who makes $136,000 a year, told The Associated Press on Wednesday. "It's just another campaign, like every other one."

The PDC documents show the mayor, who is being treated for cancer, also contributed $500 of in-kind work to the campaign. In theory, West's campaign committee could raise enough money to wipe out the mayor's recall-related legal debts.

Meanwhile, Shannon Sullivan, the unemployed Spokane mom who filed recall paperwork in May, received about $19,000 in free legal advice from three lawyers who donated time to help prepare a response to West's state Supreme Court appeal of the recall petition.

Documents filed with the PDC show the pro-recall "Recall Signature Team" committee collected $3,761 in cash donations and spent about $3,800 in August. All of the donations were of $250 or less.

Recall backers said Tuesday they have collected about 12,700 signatures, but want to gather as many as 5,000 more before turning the petitions in to Spokane County Auditor Vicky Dalton.

The recall needs 12,567 valid signatures to make the ballot, but organizers said that as many as 30 percent typically are invalid because the signers don't live in the city, or are not registered voters.

State law allows the group 180 days to turn in petitions, but organizers hope to turn them in quickly to get the issue on the Nov. 8 general election ballot. Dalton has said that would be a stretch because of the time necessary to check signatures and the work her staff still has to do for the Sept. 20 primary.



The state's high court upheld a Superior Court judge's ruling that Sullivan's abuse-of-office recall charge was factually and legally sufficient and could proceed to the signature-gathering stage.

Sullivan filed her recall petition in May, shortly after The Spokesman-Review newspaper published a series of articles detailing how West -- a conservative Republican, former state senator and longtime gay-rights opponent -- had been meeting men online for sex.

Her petition alleges that West used his elected office for personal gain -- specifically, that West wrote a recommendation letter to help someone he believed to be an 18-year-old man get a City Hall internship. The teen turned out to be a computer forensics expert hired by The Spokesman-Review.

Sullivan contends the recommendation was inappropriate because of the possible implication that the man would get an internship in exchange for sexual favors.

West has acknowledged having relationships with adult men, but denies any wrongdoing.