Jim Camden

The nomination of federal appellate judge Samuel Alito to the U.S. Supreme Court brought measured responses Monday from Northwest senators who wanted to study his record, but more spirited reaction from political party leaders. Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., said she wanted to "have all the facts" before deciding how she'd vote on the nomination, saying she'd apply the same standards that led her to support John Roberts last month as chief justice. She also used the nomination to take a jab at President Bush over his previous nominee, Harriet Miers, who withdrew, she said, "to placate the radical right."

Here's a way to look at Spokane County Ballot Proposition 1: Voters get to vote now on how they want to be voting in the future. Spokane County commissioners have placed an advisory measure on the Nov. 8 ballot as a way to help them figure out what to do about changes in technology, the law and voter preferences facing the elections office.

The Spokesman-Review and KREM-TV commissioned a survey of Spokane city voters by Research 2000, a firm based in Olney, Md., with an extensive history in national, state and Spokane area political polling. Research 2000 has conducted polls for the newspaper dating to 1999, and its president, Del Ali, conducted polls for the newspaper dating to 1994 when he was affiliated with another national firm, Mason-Dixon Political Media Research.

If the Dec. 6 recall election were held this week, more than twice as many people would vote to recall Mayor Jim West as would vote to keep him in office, the poll conducted for The Spokesman-Review and KREM 2 News shows. Less than one voter in 10 is undecided. "Very bluntly, it would take a real catastrophic set of events for the majority of voters to vote against the recall," said Del Ali, president of Research 2000, which conducted the poll.

Spokane Mayor Jim West has battled for nearly six months against Shannon Sullivan, sponsor of a recall election against him. Now, Sullivan is asking West for an appointment to the city's Human Rights Commission, and the mayor is considering it.

Spokane City Council candidate Tina Howard apologized Monday for claiming an endorsement she doesn't have, from someone she never asked. In a recent campaign mailer and a television commercial, first-time candidate Howard claimed to have the endorsement of Shannon Sullivan, the author of the recall petition against Mayor Jim West. The mailer contends her opponent, incumbent Al French, "has remained nearly silent while our mayor has embarrassed the city."

Some three weeks after Mayor Jim West asked supporters for financial help to fight an upcoming recall, he has raised $4,000 for the campaign to save his job. That's significantly less than the $150,000 West estimated he would need in his Sept. 25 campaign letter. But it's $4,000 more than a group trying to organize a campaign to support the recall.

For years, patients have been urged to take a greater role in their health care decisions. Next month, Washington voters will get a chance to make major decisions on a key aspect of their health care system. Voters actually will have two separate decisions on the Nov. 8 ballot, on a pair of initiatives a few digits apart that want to change things about the medical malpractice system in Washington state.

The nation needs consistent laws for tracking and prosecuting sex offenders, U.S. Sen. Maria Cantwell said Friday during a stop in Spokane. And it needs them quickly. "There is a wide disparity among states ... that is being exploited by sex offenders with tragic consequences," said Cantwell, who specifically listed the killing, kidnapping and sexual abuse involving the Groene family in North Idaho as an impetus for the bill. "This is not a matter that can wait."

Mayor Jim West denies using his office for personal gain and asks voters to reject his recall "so we can continue to work to make Spokane a better place." To counter the ballot language he unsuccessfully challenged in court, West on Friday afternoon submitted the response he is allowed under the state's recall law.

If taxes are one of the certainties in life, voting on them is becoming a certainty in Washington politics. Next month, Spokane city voters will decide whether local property taxes should go up to help pay for police, fire and library services.

The proposal to force a vote on the ouster of Mayor Jim West moved closer to reality Tuesday with nearly three-fourths of the needed signatures verified by county elections workers, and supporters of the recall organizing for a Dec. 6 campaign. Elections workers verified signatures from 9,251 registered city voters on recall petitions, or 73.6 percent of the 12,567 needed to place the issue on the ballot.

Local Democrats need to emphasize issues important to average people and can count on their national leaders for more help in coming elections, party stalwarts were told Monday. Patty Murray, the state's senior senator, told a luncheon crowd they don't need to look far for a message. She talks to people every day who are concerned about jobs, retirement and troops overseas.

Final ballot counts for primaries around Spokane County on Friday provided no changes to results of local races projected over the last week. Former Spokane City Councilman Steve Corker maintained a slim lead over neighborhood activist Judith Gilmore for a spot on the ballot in the city's northwest District 3. Corker finished with 2,748 votes, 43 ahead of Gilmore, for second place in the seven-candidate primary. Nancy Mc- Laughlin finished first with 3,210 votes.

In the recent primary, four longtime voters who rarely miss an election gathered at a north Spokane polling site. But not to vote. They spent the day, as they do most election days, as poll workers, monitoring other people voting.

Spokane County elections workers began checking signatures Monday on petitions calling for a vote on Mayor Jim West's ouster as supporters of the recall effort and West looked on. A day of comparing those signatures with the computerized voter registration records showed 1,450, or nearly 78 percent of those checked, were accepted and 251 were rejected. Another 163 signatures were set aside for further checking if they are needed to decide the proposal's fate.

The owners of River Park Square owe former City Councilman Steve Eugster $38,090 in attorney fees for work he did defending himself and his wife against claims filed by the mall's owners, a judge has ruled. Spokane County Superior Court Judge Robert Austin ordered the companies that own and operate the mall to pay for more than 1,200 hours of attorney fees now that many claims surrounding the mall and its financially strapped garage were voluntarily dropped earlier this year.