Champaign Supporter of Voter Recall Fights Recall Amendment on November Ballot

A Champaign political activist said he supports the idea of allowing voters to recall state elected officials. However, he said he is not backing the particular recall amendment on the Illinois November ballot.

John Bambenek said there are several things he dislikes about the governor recall amendment, but he added that the fatal flaw is the requirement that at least 30 lawmakers sign on to any recall proposal before any voter petitions can be circulated. That is 20 from the Illinois House and ten from the Senate, with at least 16 members of the general assembly coming from the sitting governor's party. Bambanek said if such a recall law was in place when Rod Blagojevich was governor, it would not have made any difference.

"If you recall back to Blagojevich, the Senate Democrats were unanimous behind him, and many of the House Democrats were overwhelmingly behind him," said Bambenek. "You wouldn't have gotten those 16 Democrats, even with Rod Blagojevich, until the day he was arrested."

Bambanek said such a requirement guarantees the recall process will never be used, and he said no other states with a recall process require prior permission from lawmakers. He added that other states that permit recalling governors also allow recall of all statewide elected officials.

Bambenek is launching a campaign to to defeat the Illinois proposal. While other opponents argue that giving voters any recall authority beyond regular elections would be bad government, Bambenek said defeating this particular recall amendment is the only way to give a stronger recall proposal a chance for approval in Illinois.