Back in the comparatively open-government
days of 2007, when the governor of Illinois occasionally deigned to answer
questions instead of running away from them, Rod Blagojevich said he
favored adding a recall provision to the state constitution.
Blagojevich was correct in acknowledging that citizens of this state don't
have adequate means to terminate an officeholder who can't, or won't, do
his job. He was correct in his opinion that Illinois should join the 18
states that give frustrated voters—as opposed to lawmakers acting in
impeachment proceedings—the power to remove inept politicians from office.
Now it's time for legislators to heed the governor's stated wish by
creating a recall provision for Illinois. By our calculation, both houses
of the General Assembly have barely a month in which to pass the
legislation that would qualify a recall amendment for the Nov. 4 general
election ballot. Depending on how that amendment is worded, it could
permit a recall election to remove Blagojevich himself as early as 2009.
Legislation enabling that public vote this fall has been introduced in
both chambers. Early in March, a House committee approved a recall measure
without a single vote in opposition.
There'll be much handicapping of this
effort in coming weeks, with plenty of commentary on who in which chamber
is supporting or opposing the notion of a recall.
The problem: That risks inextricably linking the recall proposal to the
question of who supports or opposes Blagojevich.
Surely, he is the inspiration for the recall movement, as this page stated
in an Oct. 28 editorial titled "Removing a governor." We cited
Blagojevich's reckless financial stewardship, his dictatorial antics and
his penchant for creating political enemies. We invoked his legacy of
federal and state investigations of his administration's alleged cronyism,
corruption in the steering of pension fund investments, subversion of
hiring laws, and illicit awarding of contracts.
But the need for a recall provision goes beyond any one officeholder.
Blagojevich's reign follows the certifiably corrupt term of George Ryan.
Whenever such failed leaders don't have the personal dignity to stop
pocketing a paycheck from citizens, those citizens shouldn't have to wait
for the next election to declare, "You are serving your interests, not
ours. You are dismissed."
Blagojevich has earned that distinction. Last fall, as bickering
lengthened the seemingly interminable 2007 legislative session, the
governor who cannot govern insulted the citizens of this state by
suggesting that, "If you measure success on whether or not you are doing
things for people, this is the most successful session in years."
Never mind that the governor's inability to forge legislative coalitions
last year left Illinois with inadequate accountability in public schools,
no new tax formula for funding those schools, no meaningful attack on the
state's pension indebtedness. Instead, the governor unilaterally
redirected taxpayers' dollars to pet programs that he couldn't persuade
legislators to support.
Last November an independent Chicago research firm, Glengariff Group,
reported that its survey of 600 registered voters found support for a
recall amendment swamping opposition, 65 percent to 25 percent.
Legislators need to give Illinois voters the option of adding to the
constitution a way to recall officials in the executive, judicial and
legislative branches.
Citizens, too, need to tell legislators that this recall provision is a
priority—and that they don't want to hear lame excuses about
why-we-didn't-get-around-to-that.
We've all seen how little now happens in dysfunctional Springfield.
There's time in the next month to pass a hundred pieces of recall
legislation. Illinois only needs one.
