On Sunday the Chicago Tribune ran an editorial calling for the passage of an amendment to the Illinois state constitution to allow a recall of elected state officials and then using that provision to recall present Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich:
Presented this year with an extraordinary opportunity — his Democratic Party controlling both houses of the Illinois General Assembly — Blagojevich has squandered what should have been a leadership moment: He is governor of a state in desperate need of more accountability in its public schools, of a new tax formula for funding those schools, of a meaningful attack on its swelling pension indebtedness. Today Illinois has … solutions to none of the above.
Instead, taxpayers are bankrolling an endless game of chicken between legislative leaders and a governor known to boast about his self-diagnosed “testicular virility.” Blagojevich has clumsily tried to recast himself as a prairie populist, bashing his state’s employers. He has borrowed from the future to cover costs of state government today. And in a fiasco that may have its own constitutional implications, he has redirected millions of taxpayers’ dollars to personal priorities that he can’t convince lawmakers to support.
Blagojevich is an intentionally divisive governor and a profoundly unhelpful influence. He is unwilling or unable to see the chaos all around him. This year, lawmakers failed to make progress on schools, on state pension reform, on any number of critical matters. Mass transit in the Chicago region is about to implode, largely because of the state government’s failure.
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Illinois citizens have little for which they can thank Rod Blagojevich. They can, though, thank him for demonstrating why this state’s legislature and voters should add a recall provision to the Illinois Constitution. And use it.
Unsurprisingly, most responders to the Trib’s call for reaction supported the idea. Equally unsurprisingly, Mayor Daley is not amused by the proposal:
Daley may well agree with some or all of the Tribune’s assessment. But he’s not about to support removing the two-term governor from office.
“Calling [for] a recall is unnecessary. I may have differences with the governor. But I really believe his mind is on public transportation and on infrastructure as [much as] everyone else. You can’t say just because I’m upset with [him about] an issue, two issues that you’re gonna have a recall. I disagree with that,” the mayor said.
“He is very, very smart. He’s been a state representative. He’s been congressman. He’s elected twice governor of the state of Illinois. It’s unfair. He’s a very smart and bright and emotional governor. Let’s be realistic.”
Mayor Daley may be correct but I have seen no evidence of the governor’s intelligence other than his marrying powerful Chicago Alderman Richard Mell’s daughter. There’s no IQ test for public office.
Illinois is one of the least populist states in the nation. The state constitution lacks provisions not only for recall of officials but for initiative (except in narrow procedural matters) and binding referendum. Both political parties are hopelessly corrupt and burdened by nepotism and incompetency. In my lifetime three Illinois governors have been convicted of crimes and sent to prison after serving their terms (one, George Ryan, is still appealing his case). Does any other state have such a record?
If any state needs reform, it’s Illinois. Desparate times call for desparate measures and the times now are desparate enough that a little more real populism is probably what Illinois needs.
The Governor said he would support a recall amendment, but he’s so unpopular that his endorsement makes it unlikely to pass.