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EDITORIAL: In Illinois, recall weapon is needed
In Illinois, officials deserve risk of recall.
THE MOST RECENT former governor of Illinois is a felon - the latest in a long and dishonorable string - convicted of racketeering and fraud. George Ryan, oddly enough, is now a resident of Wisconsin, specifically the federal pen at Oxford, where he is serving a six-year sentence.
The current governor, Rod Blagojevich, is about as popular as the flu. His name keeps coming up at the corruption trial of Antoin “Tony” Rezko, the notorious Chicago political fixer. One Chicago radio station, apparently tongue in cheek, suggested a contest to guess the date Blagojevich will be indicted.
Meanwhile, the General Assembly - with both the House and Senate controlled by Democrats - has been an embarrassment of errors and incompetency. It made a mess of the budget. It can't figure out how to properly fund schools, despite piling up a mountain of debt.
And to make matters worse legislators are poised to grant themselves a big raise.
MAJORITY DEMOCRATS, however, were able to find the will and the way to scuttle a proposal to grant Illinois citizens the right to impose recall elections against officials the people deemed unworthy and unwanted.
What? Illinois in need of a weapon against crooked, incompetent politicians?
Ya think?
The proposal would have put an initiative on the November ballot, but the plan was killed in the Senate.
Republican Ron Wait, who represents this area in the 69th House District, is livid.
“I don't think I have ever witnessed a bigger insult to the voters of Illinois than the shenanigans being conducted in Springfield,” Wait said in a press release. “That is why I am posting on my website a petition urging the Boone, Dekalb and Winnebago county boards to adopt resolutions putting an advisory recall referendum on the ballot this fall. If you agree that voters should have an option for removal of elected officials not doing their job, I urge you to go to my website (www.repwait.com) and sign my petition.”
NORMALLY, WE ARE not enthusiastic about recall initiatives. There can be an ugly element of emotionalism at work, in which a relatively small and overzealous minority could use the mechanism to bully leaders. Voters can replace officials at regular election intervals as it is, making the need for a recall do-over seem somewhat superfluous.
But Illinois has such a tawdry record among its public officials that extraordinary measures should be an option. A state government so dysfunctional, so often, deserves the risk of recall.
So, to our readers south of the border, we recommend signing Rep. Wait's petition.
Will it do any good? Springfield is a place good ideas go to die, so it's doubtful.
But doing nothing is a lousy alternative. Give the petition a try.
THE MOST RECENT former governor of Illinois is a felon - the latest in a long and dishonorable string - convicted of racketeering and fraud. George Ryan, oddly enough, is now a resident of Wisconsin, specifically the federal pen at Oxford, where he is serving a six-year sentence.
The current governor, Rod Blagojevich, is about as popular as the flu. His name keeps coming up at the corruption trial of Antoin “Tony” Rezko, the notorious Chicago political fixer. One Chicago radio station, apparently tongue in cheek, suggested a contest to guess the date Blagojevich will be indicted.
Meanwhile, the General Assembly - with both the House and Senate controlled by Democrats - has been an embarrassment of errors and incompetency. It made a mess of the budget. It can't figure out how to properly fund schools, despite piling up a mountain of debt.
And to make matters worse legislators are poised to grant themselves a big raise.
MAJORITY DEMOCRATS, however, were able to find the will and the way to scuttle a proposal to grant Illinois citizens the right to impose recall elections against officials the people deemed unworthy and unwanted.
What? Illinois in need of a weapon against crooked, incompetent politicians?
Ya think?
The proposal would have put an initiative on the November ballot, but the plan was killed in the Senate.
Republican Ron Wait, who represents this area in the 69th House District, is livid.
“I don't think I have ever witnessed a bigger insult to the voters of Illinois than the shenanigans being conducted in Springfield,” Wait said in a press release. “That is why I am posting on my website a petition urging the Boone, Dekalb and Winnebago county boards to adopt resolutions putting an advisory recall referendum on the ballot this fall. If you agree that voters should have an option for removal of elected officials not doing their job, I urge you to go to my website (www.repwait.com) and sign my petition.”
NORMALLY, WE ARE not enthusiastic about recall initiatives. There can be an ugly element of emotionalism at work, in which a relatively small and overzealous minority could use the mechanism to bully leaders. Voters can replace officials at regular election intervals as it is, making the need for a recall do-over seem somewhat superfluous.
But Illinois has such a tawdry record among its public officials that extraordinary measures should be an option. A state government so dysfunctional, so often, deserves the risk of recall.
So, to our readers south of the border, we recommend signing Rep. Wait's petition.
Will it do any good? Springfield is a place good ideas go to die, so it's doubtful.
But doing nothing is a lousy alternative. Give the petition a try.
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