SPOKANE, Wash. — Mayor Jim West faces recall Tuesday over a sex-tinged abuse-of-office charge that he offered a City Hall internship to an 18-year-old he met in a gay chat room.

But the young man West offered a job — allegedly in anticipation of sex — never existed. The Gay.com profile West knew as “motobrock” was a ruse The Spokesman-Review used to track the mayor’s online activities.

West has acknowledged having relationships with young men but has denied doing anything illegal.

The FBI is investigating. No charges have been filed.

The newspaper has published more than 175 articles, editorials and columns accusing West of pedophilia and using his city-owned computer to look for dates with men in cities he planned to visit.

West, 54, a former Boy Scout executive and sheriff’s deputy, denies the pedophilia allegations. He said he no longer engages in gay sex and has stopped visiting Internet chat rooms.

“I don’t do that stuff anymore and probably shouldn’t have done it in the first place,” West, 54, told The Associated Press. “It’s an unusual episode in my life. I wish there was a rewind button. Basically, that’s what I’m asking the public for: a second chance.”

Forgiveness from the voters isn’t likely, said Lance LeLoup, a Washington State University political science professor.

Polls indicate 60 percent of registered city voters would vote to recall the once-powerful Republican state senate leader.

“People just want to get it over with and move on,” LeLoup said. “Spokane has been ready to move on since within a couple of weeks of this thing breaking.”

Ballots for the mail-only special election were mailed Nov. 18 to more than 110,000 registered city voters. More than 47,000 have already been returned.

The campaign has been low-key, just a few yard signs. West has resurrected some leftover “Elect Jim West” signs from his mayoral campaign in 2003.

West, who is being treated for colon cancer that spread to his liver, still has supporters, but contributions to his Committee for Spokane’s Progress have fallen far short of the $150,000 he sought.

The committee has raised about $19,000 from lobbyists, developers, friends and family members. Most of that, about $12,000, went for radio ads touting the mayor’s record in office. He owes lawyers $85,000 for an unsuccessful state supreme court challenge of the recall.

Pro-recall advocates run a “Recall Jim West” Web page and have raised about $7,500 in cash, enough to air a television spot accusing West of embarrassing the city, being bad for business and degrading its youth.

If the recall ends West’s 25-year political career, he would become the first Spokane elected city official to be ousted from office.

Because the recall is not a normal election, West has no opponent to battle.

Shannon Sullivan — the single mom who successfully argued before the state Supreme Court that the recall should proceed after collecting 5,000 more signatures than required — quickly stepped out of the political portion of the recall.

So the mayor has focused on radio ads and interviews in other media on the newspaper and what he calls its “crusade” against him.

Spokesman-Review Editor Steven Smith said the newspaper was simply doing its job: exposing the conduct of a public official who was abusing his office.

“It’s a very odd set of circumstances, but he is a politician who is in a political contest who can’t really boast about his record,” Smith said.

The mayor, a conservative Republican in the nonpartisan office, lost the support of both the state and local GOP organizations, which joined the Spokane City Council and Chamber of Commerce in calling for his resignation soon after the newspaper’s series began.

A subsequent investigation by a lawyer hired by the City Council found that West violated city computer policies and broke state law by trolling a gay chat room from his office.

A judge recently rejected West’s attorneys’ attempts to prevent release of the contents of the mayor’s computer hard drive, but withheld images from the hundreds of men whose profiles West downloaded.

LeLoup said the mayor’s sexual preference is not the core issue in the special election.

“I don’t think the gay issue is what makes it unusual. What a lot of people see is hypocrisy and the degree of revelations of the material on the mayor’s computer,” LeLoup said. “The recent report by the city council’s attorney suggest it’s more than simply a phantom offering.”

If West is recalled, City Council President Dennis Hession would become mayor pro tem until the council appoints someone to serve out the remaining two years of West’s unexpired term.

Spokane, which has a history of turning out its mayors after one term, isn’t likely to undergo transformation because of the recall, LeLoup argued.

“I don’t think there are really going to be any changes. This recall is about an individual and how he conducted himself, not how liberal or conservative Spokane is,” LeLoup said. “People are still going to be looking for people with integrity and Main Street values. I don’t really see it having any big seismic changes in Spokane politics.”