Voters to be asked next year if they want power to recall wayward governors

10/15/09

Posted by Ray Long and Monique Garcia at 12:10 p.m.; updated at 2:50 p.m.

SPRINGFIELD---After months of delay, the Illinois Senate approved legislation long coveted by Gov. Pat Quinn that will ask voters if they want the ability to recall wayward governors.

The recall legislation isn't the version Quinn wanted, but it's the best that could be negotiated among lawmakers as ethics reforms were under discussion this year following the impeachment and ouster of the indicted ex-Gov. Rod Blagojevich.

Under the measure, voters will be asked on the November 2010 ballot to approve a constitutional amendment allowing recall.

If voters approved next year, they would permit Illinois citizens to launch a petition drive to recall a future governor. But several additional hurdles must be cleared, including getting authorizing signatures from as many as 10 senators and 20 representatives.

Sponsoring Sen. Michael Noland, D-Elgin, said it is time to "empower the people" who did not have the chance to launch a petition drive to recall Blagojevich.

Quinn, who as lieutenant governor supported the recall measure and rose to his position when Blagojevich was dumped from office, watched with approval as the vote unfolded on the Senate floor.

The Senate approved the legislation on a 56-1 vote.

The lone vote against the recall proposal was made by Sen. Mike Jacobs, D-East Moline, who argued the recall measure would "lessen the independence of a governor."

He contended future governors would be consumed even more than they are now with how voters would react to everything a chief executive does, and that would means a governor could back away from making some of the toughest decisions before him.

Several Democrats and Republicans suggested the proposal should have gone further than just allowing voters to consider whether they should be able to recall a governor. Earlier ideas on recall would have added state lawmakers and other officials to those who could be recalled by voters. But many also realized that a vote against recall, no matter what the reason, would be a tough vote to explain to voters already fed up with state government.

Sen. Kwame Raoul (D-Chicago) acknowledged he would "reluctantly support" the bill, but he warned that giving the electorate a chance to throw out a governor puts the state on a "path of danger."
He warned that a governor could back off of bold ideas because he would fear a backlash from "well-financed special interests" that would oppose him.

Quinn hailed the recall measure as "the very best way to make sure the governor does the right thing all the time."

“I think that we will see that this is the ultimate ethics measure for the people of Illinois to use, I think, wisely and prudently to make sure that our government stands up right and our governor stands up right all the time," Quinn told reporters minutes after the vote.

Earlier this year, Quinn repeatedly said recall was his top priority of the legislative session.

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