Lap dancer who became town mayor is stripped of her office

The small Colorado town that elected a former stripper as its mayor has decided enough is enough.

After a year of scandal, intrigue, and reports of exposed breasts and physical assault, both real and imagined, Georgetown has voted to remove Koleen Brooks from office, in effect admitting that the publicity generated by a motorbike-riding former lap dancer, with no experience of the job, wasn't worth the hassle.

Tuesday's vote attracted a record turn-out in the elegant Victorian mining town, which has a population of just 1,100. Ms Brooks was thrown out of office by 339 votes to 176, a resounding defeat that left her on the verge of tears.

Shortly after Ms Brooks was elected last April, promising to rip the cobwebs from the mountain community's rather fusty town council, it became clear she did not know how to chair a meeting and seemed unable to function without her personal assistant, a photographer who took several candid shots of her for the election campaign. Within a month she became embroiled in a Clinton-esque scandal over whether she flashed her breasts in a local bar or not. Later, she was formally investigated for making threats against one of the town's two policemen.

In February, she claimed she was assaulted late at night by one of her growing band of political enemies. The police did not believe her and next week she is due in court on charges of evidence-tampering and making a false report.

Ms Brooks will be replaced by the wife of a county judge, who said the town would feel relief at her removal.

Facing the television cameras to talk about her defeat, the outgoing mayor vowed she would be back for the 2003 election before asking: "OK, can I go to the bar now?"