From the Kankakee Daily Journal (Editorial):

Editorial: The call for recall
04/18/2008, 9:22 am
The right of recall has its roots in the farm movement of a century ago.
Economically squeezed farmers were crushed by high taxes, exorbitant bills to ship grain to market and hard money policies that made it difficult to repay existing debt. There was a time when people actually crusaded to get more inflation. Democratic presidential candidate William Jennings Bryan, who frequently visited Kankakee County on the Chautauqua circuit, told audiences that mankind would not be crucified on a "Cross of Gold," as he campaigned to have the nation taken off the gold standard to encourage inflation. Nixon followed his advice 70 years later. Chautauquas, if you're wondering, were a mixture of education and entertainment, like lectures, with jugglers and singers thrown in.
Farmers, who felt their state governments were unresponsive to their problems, wrote the right of recall into new state constitutions when they could. Although most are vaguely familiar with the California movement that dumped Grey Davis for Arnold Schwarzeneggar, the real right of recall has been in sparsely populated states where agriculture is important.
Which brings us to Illinois.
The state House now has a bill giving Illinois residents the potential right of recall. The bill still faces a state Senate vote. Then, as a constitutional amendment, it would have to be approved by the state's voters.
We are talking long shot here.
The proposed recall procedure would require any group seeking to recall a state official to gather signatures equivalent to 12 percent of the vote from the last election. This is a high -- maybe impossible -- standard. In general to gather two good signatures, you need to get three. That's because some people will not sign their legal name. Others will have a bad address. Some people will sign even though they are not registered to vote. In Kankakee County alone, which votes 40,000, you're talking 7,000 signatures. Think of how many would be needed in Cook County. Not going to happen.
What this is all about, of course, is a shot across the bow of a very annoying, very incompetent governor. Like many things in Illinois, this is less about making meaningful reform than it is about giving the impression that something is happening.
There is little harm in passing this, but we can think of a dozen other reforms that would move Illinois toward better government. Prevent the stockpile and transfer of campaign donations. Make recall statewide for all officials. Add in initiative and referendum. Prune the number of elected officials. Limit their pay.
It's not that some recall isn't better than none. But the problem isn't so much a dysfunctional governor as it is a dysfunctional system that reduces ordinary state representatives -- and citizens -- to powerlessness.