31 Comments - Niles Township - Friday, Nov 2, 07 @ 9:36 am: I think intelligent enough people can get more than one thing done at a time. So in an ideal, mature setting we could debate recall, transit funding, capital plans, pension reform etc. all over one session. The problem is, of course, we are dealing with the Illinois Legislature which in recent years especially has not exhibited any qualities indicating intelligence or maturity. - j - Friday, Nov 2, 07 @ 9:38 am: Silly distraction. Because nobody will pass a constitutional amendment if it won’t be done in time to get the governor removed from office. And everybody will write any debate off as the legislature just again “whining about their projects.” And do you think Madigan wants that recall provision approved just in time for Governor Lisa to take office? Or would Governor Cross want that hanging over his head when he takes office? - pchappel - Friday, Nov 2, 07 @ 9:39 am: Yes, pretty pointless right now… As many have pointed out by the time this disfunctional Legislature could potentially get the recall into law, the current Governor would have long since been replaced… Barring the dead and dogs in Chicago voting again of course Besides, it would be a nice “present” for his successor to have hanging over their heads… ‘course, just my opinion, I could be wrong… - Women's Room - Friday, Nov 2, 07 @ 9:43 am: Elected officials should be held accountable. If they aren’t doing there jobs the voters should be permitted have a recall and then replace them. Bet there would be a lot less people running for public office, especially in Illinois. - The Curmudgeon - Friday, Nov 2, 07 @ 9:50 am: Ah, poor Quinn. He thought sure Blago would have been indicted by now. (Of course, so did a lot of people….) So he’s getting impatient and fanning the flames of the recall movement. It’s a distraction. But why not indulge in the distraction for awhile? It’s not as if there’s going to be anything of substance today on transit — the CTA’s bluff may be called after all. - The Tao Of Corruption - Friday, Nov 2, 07 @ 9:52 am: My god Rod Blagojevich is delusional. He’s aways comparing himself to great people (Lincoln, Roosevelt) that he can’t even hold a candle too. Get over yourself Rod! Free up those federal subpoenas Rod, what are you hiding? - Levois - Friday, Nov 2, 07 @ 9:53 am: I don’t think it’s a silly distract but aren’t there more important things to consider right now such as public transit, the budget, and a capital plan. - Silent Majority - Friday, Nov 2, 07 @ 10:02 am: The GA will never pass it for a number of reasons so why waste time on it. - Legaleagle - Friday, Nov 2, 07 @ 10:09 am: Silly distraction. We have too many and too frequent elections already. Two and four-year terms are not that long. If the people elect a bad Governor, they should accept responsibility and suffer -next time maybe they’ll be more careful whom they vote for! - zatoichi - Friday, Nov 2, 07 @ 10:10 am: If it is not in the current con, legally how can you add something and then say let’s go back to enforce the new rule for some previous situation? I would think any recall change could be used against any elected positions. Don’t see it happening. Distraction. - What planet is he from again? - Friday, Nov 2, 07 @ 10:17 am: I think it’s a good idea, but it’ll be a lot of bluster and no substance and will die a quick death. But if something does become if the issue, I think it should include a measure where we can outster the leaders of the legislature too . . . after all, Blago, while deserving every bit of blame he’s gotten, isn’t 100% to blame for everything. *We* didn’t elect Jones or Madigan as leaders, so why should our interests live and die by their whims? (Sure, my representative had a voice in the matter, but really, what choice was there? If he/she’s in the minority, his vote didn’t count anyway, and if he/she’s in the majority, voting against the party leader would have been political suicide.) - lake county democrat - Friday, Nov 2, 07 @ 10:18 am: Not silly distraction if it includes the right to recall *any* elected state or local official. You could make it apply only for pols elected 2008 and after to take it out of the politics of the moment. - Simon Said... - Friday, Nov 2, 07 @ 10:20 am: Simon Bolivar said: “A state too extensive in itself, or by virtue of its dependencies, ultimately falls into decay; its free government is transformed into a tyranny; it disregards the principles which it should preserve, and finally degenerates into despotism…” - Justice - Friday, Nov 2, 07 @ 10:24 am: It does serve to distract many and it is a welcome way for many legislators to hide behind the armor shield it affords by making it appear it’s entirely the governor’s fault. Though we do have some good legislators, many are simply followers, but that is the way our system works. I agree with others that all these issues can be acted upon simultaneously. Ethics legislation would be nice as would a capital bill and a bail out of the Chicago area transportation. But with only a few egos in charge, this will ratchet up to still higher pain threshold for all. - HUGE WASTE OF TIME - Friday, Nov 2, 07 @ 10:42 am: The Tribune started this so people would actually start reading their pathetic paper. Fair and balanced journalism is not practiced by the Tribune. SHAME SHAME - Carl Nyberg - Friday, Nov 2, 07 @ 10:44 am: Supporting a recall amendment is not a substitute for governing the state. Dems talking about recall is similar to Ronald Reagan supporting a balance budget amendment as a way to distract from the fact Reagan wouldn’t make the tough choices to balance the budget. - Cassandra - Friday, Nov 2, 07 @ 10:59 am: Let me preface this by saying that at this point I would not vote for Blago’s recall should the opportunity arise. I am grateful to him for trying to keep my taxes from rising further and I see no problem with our feckless legislators, who got a huge raise this year, having to work a little longer to get a transit bill, or any bill, done. I am concerned about massive Democratic patronage and the related deterioration of the state civil service, but taxes trump pretty much everything for me. Having said that, I support the recall option. Voters can make mistakes. Should they have to live with them for several years. No. The recall option should be there and it should not be unduly cumbersome. And the availability of this option may curb some politicians’ excesses although that’s an optimistic take, I know. Of course, the recall option should also apply to state legislators and to judges as well. - sickofspringfield. - Friday, Nov 2, 07 @ 11:09 am: To Huge waste of Time: What a fool if you think the tribune started this. It’s been a topic os discussion since mid spring in the general assembly. They didn’t need the tribune to suggest the idea. - phocion - Friday, Nov 2, 07 @ 11:18 am: Silly distraction. Wait for the Con Con to sort this out. - Oh pleaaaaase! - Friday, Nov 2, 07 @ 11:19 am: To HUGE WASTE OF TIME - I take it you’re among the chosen ones who have gone to bed with the devil (is the salary worth it, Dr. Faustus?)- SHAME ON YOU! - Six Degrees of Separation - Friday, Nov 2, 07 @ 11:33 am: The one thing I would enjoy about a recall and election is the prospect of Gary Coleman running for governor, as he did along with 134 other candidates in CA in 2003. If you recall (pun), CA had a simultaneous recall of the governor along with election of the new governor on the same ballot. There’s a detailed Wiki article on the CA 2003 recall. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2003_California_recall After reading it, it’s not a process I’d enjoy going through here. It’s the responsibility of the electorate to choose the officials they want. If they make the wrong choice, it should serve as a needed education of the voters. - plutocrat03 - Friday, Nov 2, 07 @ 11:35 am: An option for a recall of any elected official should be available to the voters of Illinois as it is in many states. The media and money driven campaigns can and have produced candidates who do not execute their promises or otherwise become unwilling to do their jobs to their constituents satisfaction. I recall a member of one of our local Boards who decided to not attend any of the scheduled Board meetings. No sanction was available to compel resignation or attendance. However I do not expect the current officeholders to vote for this right of recall since I believe it will be percieved as detrimental to their fiefdoms. - pickles!! - Friday, Nov 2, 07 @ 11:53 am: I would oppose a recall unless he is indicted. We, the people vote for these clowns, we’re stuck with them until someone better comes along. What good is democracy if we just undue what we did. You can’t boot someone out for being a moron in politics. If that’s the case, who’s left? - The Mad Hatter - Friday, Nov 2, 07 @ 12:44 pm: Wait…why is this issue any more of a waste of time than what Elvis and the Four Tops have been engaged in for the past year? I see a lot of bluster, but little of substance coming out of Springfield. I agree with plutocrat that candidates seem to be chosen based on money, which usually leaves voters the option of choosing between bad and worse. Since the ballot does not contain a provision for “None of the Above” (which it should), taxpayers should have the right to rid themselves of delusional egomaniacs who simply cannot or will not do what they were elected to do. - so-called "Austin Mayor" - Friday, Nov 2, 07 @ 12:48 pm: It is just a silly distraction unless flogging becomes part of the proposal. Then they should take it up immediately. – SCAM - cermak_rd - Friday, Nov 2, 07 @ 1:02 pm: Money doesn’t elect candidates, people do! The money pays for fliers & commercials. It can help smoothe out negatives and reinforce positives. That’s it! Look at the race between Judy & Rod for a moment. He was running on his record, which was mediocre, but really no less mediocre than several of his predecessors in the office. Judy was running on her record of integrity and effiency while in other offices. Their stances on most issues were similar and Judy faced lack of enthusiasm within her own ranks. I’m not sure how money alone came down to affecting this race. Judy was going to have her issues within her own party regardless of how much $$ Blago spent. And Judy’s barbs about Blago’s ethics only served to reinforce the fact that there had been no indictments and at the same time there was a real trial going on with real indictments of a former governor from her party. - VanillaMan - Friday, Nov 2, 07 @ 2:26 pm: We live in a time of poisonous partisanship. This will eventually pass when Blagojevich is out of office. Voters are not stupid. Blagojevich was the better candidate to a plurality of them for a couple reasons. Voters do not make mistakes, regardless of how arm-chair pundits call elections afterwards. People are not dupes. So let’s lay off the elitist opinions, shall we? Recalls do not fix problems unless you believe that one person controls the entire community and government. Recalls are messy, expensive, and as political as what came before them and after. The Tribune put out an editorial during a time of extreme anger towards our failing state government. So naturally a lot of people got emotional over it and responded as requested. It is a safe bet that a lot of people will be reading Tribune editorials for several more weeks to see if they continue with these time bombs. It is good for their business, isn’t it? The entire Illinois Democratic Party has failed our state. It has failed us at the Chicago mayoral level, the Cook County Presidential level, and the Illinois Gubernatorial level. Let them deal with the destruction they unleashed with their poor decision making and poor fiscal planning. Let them scream and holler over the smoldering wreckage they turned Illinois into. Let them make grand pronouncements about recalling their own governor. They screwed up, and they are afraid of how voters will turn from them based on how badly they have screwed up. It is their problem. We have a bigger one, don’t we? Regardless of how many fools are running Illinois from elected positions, we have a state to run. We are broke and blaming the guys who have been spending billions more than we have and continue to propose billions more in state spending is a waste of time. We’re broke too. Lets triage, stop the bleeding in some way and then throw each of these melon-heads out of their office windows as soon as we can. But lets stop gawking at the soap opera civil war being played in the Thompson Center and get to work, OK? - will county wiseguy - Friday, Nov 2, 07 @ 8:55 pm: Recalls are a waste of time and money. We already have a process for recalling bad officials–it’s called an election. Let’s figure out a better and fairer way to slate candidates and take the influence of money out of elections. Then you will see better qualified people running for office. We should also figure out a way to limit the power of legislative caucus leaders. For starters,both houses should limit the number of years a legislative leader can serve in that capacity. - Demmo Crat - Friday, Nov 2, 07 @ 9:34 pm: I support the proposal for recall. Its not often that you get someone as abrasive as Blago, but when you do, you have to do something. I think there should be some discussion about removing Cook County President Stroger for his out of control tax hikes and Assessor Jim Houlihan for his attempted takeover of the Board of Review and the Property Tax Appeals Board. Houlihan just doesnt like due process. - Squideshi - Saturday, Nov 3, 07 @ 12:04 am: Here’s another way to look at this: Rod Blagojevich: OPPOSES RECALL Judy Baar Topinka: NO OFFICIAL POSITION Rich Whitney: SUPPORTS RECALL I wonder if the Illinois Republican Party is going to come out to be the party of democracy on this issue–certainly the dEMOCRAT is not. - Anon - Monday, Nov 5, 07 @ 7:33 pm: I agree with Six Degrees. Also, this is not only a current distraction (to recall or not to recall), but the recalls themselves will be distractions in future, which are likely to lead to even more instability in government. (More petitions, more funding, more lobbying, etc. while some elected officials are trying to stay focused so that they can get something accomplished, even if against the odds.) Plus, I’m not sure that Illinois, specifically, is ready for something like this primarily because both parties seem a bit dysfunctional right now. The public will get even more annoyed than they already are. Timing would be critical, so those pushing soon after an election will be perceived as spoilers who aren’t giving the newly-elected a chance. In the instances where the recall is pursued later in the term, people will see it as a waste of time and money–and possibly insulting because someone’s now trying to preempt their ability to go through the proscribed process to cast a vote. I’m also not sure that your average voter would even be willing to invest the time to follow the recall through–in addition to the standard primary and general elections. (Who has the time or patience?) Therefore, some might just consider it easier to jump on a recall if the person now subject to recall had a loud voice in someone else’s recall. Eventually, people (both the public and targeted officials) will begin to try to find ways around the recalls (e.g., arguing that you shouldn’t be able to cast a recall vote if you didn’t originally cast a vote for the elected official, etc., etc.). Probably LOTS of money to be made in all of this, but just imagine what the State would be like if we were to cut even a small percentage of elected officials’ terms in half without a solid, tested, and proven process to support it. Sorry, comments for this post are now closed.