The race for county assessor has become less crowded, and perhaps, less interesting.

A real estate agent working for the city of Spokane and apocalyptic author who announced he would run for county assessor dropped out of the race earlier this month and never filed.

Terry L. Cook has written several books, including one that says President Obama "is an America-hating Muslim/Communist who's actually a puppet-leader of the Council On Foreign Relations' international New-World-Order globalists," according to a Web site that sells his books.

In a phone interview this week, Cook blamed, in part, a Spokesman-Review article about his candidacy for his decision to drop from the race. He said the article didn't focus enough on his real estate credentials and painted him as a "religious nut." He blamed Cowles Co. Chairwoman Betsy Cowles for trying to get him to leave the race. Cowles Co. owns The Spokesman-Review -- though neither Betsy Cowles nor any member of the Cowles family had input on coverage of Cook. 

Cook added that the newspaper article sparked his book sales. He said he sold 162 books soon after the article was published. He said he normally sells about 50 a day.

As a guest to talk about his candidacy on a local conservative AM radio talk show hosted by George McGrath and Mike Fagan, Cook said his newest book is called "Murder by Injection: The Swine Flu Vaccine."

Also as a guest on McGrath and Fagan's show, Cook referenced one of his books and promised that, if elected, he would not to let the United Nations interfere with the county assessor's office.

"I proved my case beyond a reasonable doubt … that the new world order is global communism with a loss of sovereignty of the United States and the UN Agenda 21 affects us here at the local level. I do not want anything to do with agenda 21, I want the city out of it, I want the county out of it, and I’ll do my best as assessor not to participate."

Cook's departure from the race still leaves voters with several choices for county assessor. This year's county assessor's candidates are Republicans Ralph Baker, the incumbent, and Vicki Horton; Democrats Sadie Cooney, the former assessor, and Andrew Jackson; and independents Lori Wick and Gina McKenzie.