From the SouthtownStar:
Phil Kadner
Senate expected to bury election recall
April 10, 2008
The smart money says the Illinois Senate never will vote on a measure that would allow people to decide if they want the power to recall the governor, state legislators and other state officials.
Members of the House voted 75 to 33 Tuesday to put a proposed constitutional amendment, allowing a recall of state officeholders, on the November ballot.
One recent poll revealed that 70 percent of the voters in this state support the idea.
But this isn't a democracy. Illinois is run by three people - Gov. Rod Blagojevich, Senate President Emil Jones (D-Chicago) and House Speaker Michael Madigan (D-Chicago).
Jones, say the Springfield insiders, isn't going to allow this recall idea out of committee. He's the governor's pal.
I'm not certain where I stand on the recall issue. I think there are good arguments on both sides.
There's no doubt that this constitutional amendment is being spearheaded by people who don't like the governor.
Amending the constitution because you want to get rid of a particular individual is a bad idea, in my opinion.
But the best reason for a recall may be this: Lawmakers in Illinois refuse to let the democratic process play out. Whether it is school funding reform or recall legislation, they simply stick the bill in their back pocket and sit on it.
That means the public doesn't get a chance to tell their legislators how they would like to see them vote.
It means there's no debate on the floor.
It means that legislators can campaign at election time saying they really supported the recall or school funding reform, but gosh darn it, the bill never came to the floor for a vote. Nothing they could do about it.
They never have to take a public stand.
Jones represents about nine south suburbs. In fact, although he's identified as a Chicago senator, about two-thirds of his Senate district lies in the suburbs, including parts of Oak Forest and Orland Park.
The Senate majority leader is Debbie Halvorson (D-Crete), whose district includes a number of south suburban communities and some that are referred to as "downstate."
If you think that this recall legislation merits a vote by the entire Senate, call Jones (773-995-7748) and Halvorson (708-756-0882), and tell them just that.
A recall process would not be simple.
The Senate would have to approve the proposal by May 4 to get the issue on the Nov. 4 ballot. The question would ask voters if they favor amending the state constitution to include the recall provision.
For recall to become law in this state, 60 percent of the people voting on that question would have to say, "Yes."
If that happened, a six-month grace period would take effect before a recall effort against any state official could begin.
After that, to recall a statewide official (governor, lieutenant governor, attorney general, comptroller, treasurer, secretary of state), people would have to collect more than 400,000 signatures on a petition (12 percent of the votes cast in the last election).
The recall supporters would have 160 days to collect all those signatures.
If the governor was the person being recalled, his name would appear on a recall ballot, and the names of candidates to replace him would appear elsewhere.
There would be no primary elections. The state Legislature would be assigned the task of determining the criteria (number of signatures necessary) for a candidate to get his name on the ballot.
You can bet there would be legal challenges filed and millions of dollars spent on TV commercials by the group trying to remove the governor and the governor himself.
The process of the election would cost millions of dollars.
And after all of that, would the person replacing Blagojevich, just to throw out a name, be any better?
It wasn't long ago we thought George Ryan set the standard for bad governors.
The smart move, of course, is to bury this measure in a Senate committee.
That would protect senators who have to run in the next election.
And that, in fact, is justification for a recall.
Legislators have handed their authority to Jones and Madigan. They do not represent the voters but their leaders.
Time and again they sit idle as essential matters are decided, or mothballed, behind closed doors.
Vote on recall, up or down.