Oct 15, 2009 1:34 pm US/Central
Lawmakers Place Recall Plan On 2010 Ballot
SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (CBS) ―
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Illinois State Capitol Building in Springfield, Illinois
AP
Illinois lawmakers have approved a measure allowing Illinois residents to vote on a constitutional amendment for the power to remove an unpopular governor from office in the middle of his or her term.
If approved by voters next year, the Illinois Constitution would be amended and citizens would be able to take steps to remove a sitting governor from office.
The Illinois House approved
the measure in May and the Senate signed off by a 56-1 vote on Thursday.
Gov. Pat Quinn has pushed for a recall measure for more than 30 years and praised lawmakers for approving the proposal on Thursday.
"The very best way to ensure the governor does the right thing all the time is to have in our Constitution, the power of recall with respect to the office of governor," Quinn said. "I think that we will see that this is the ultimate ethics measure for the people of Illinois to use."
Quinn said that voters should not have to wait until the next election to remove a governor from office if he or she violates the public trust. "We've had serious problems with my two predecessors, George Ryan and Rod Blagojevich. Each of them, I think, would have been subject to a recall petition under the terms of this amendment," Quinn said.
The proposal now goes on the November 2010 ballot and 60 percent of voters must approve the measure for the Illinois Constitution to be amended to allow recall power.
But even if voters approve of giving themselves that authority, the measure approved by lawmakers would require them to clear several hurdles before they could vote to remove a sitting governor.
Among them is a requirement that voters seeking to recall the governor collect signatures from 15 percent of the total number of voters in the previous race for governor – hundreds of thousands of signatures – within five months.
Before that, 30 state lawmakers would have sign off on the effort – 10 senators and 20 representatives, with no more than half of those signatures coming from a single party.
If both of those hurdles were cleared a special election would be held to decide if the governor should be removed from office. If voters decided to kick the governor out of office, the lieutenant governor would serve as acting governor and another special election would be held to replace the governor until the end of his or her term.
The lone vote against the recall measure was State Sen. Mike Jacobs (D-East Moline), who said allowing recall would "lessen the independence of a governor."
State Sen. Dale Righter (R-Charleston) criticized Senate Democrats who blocked a similar effort last summer while former Gov. Rod Blagojevich was in office.
"The time has come and gone. The time was a year ago," Righter said.
State Sen. John J. Millner (R-Carol Stream) wanted to amend the recall measure on Thursday so that voters could also have the power to recall Cook County Board President Todd Stroger.
"The people of Cook County have been asking for relief again and again," Millner said. But his amendment to the recall measure was not considered by the full Senate.
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