Barbara Flynn Currie.

Press Releases

  • The Deceptive Promise of Recall

    18 April 2008

    News from Springfield………………by State Rep. Barbara Flynn Currie

    The Illinois House of Representatives recently approved a constitutional amendment giving voters the opportunity to recall state lawmakers and executive officers. Here’s what I had to say:

    Recall is seductive, and its rhetoric powerful. Let the people speak, hold politicians accountable 365 days a year.

    But its promise is deceptive.

    Recalls don’t happen in a political vacuum. Voters across the state don’t wake up one morning and say let’s dump old so-and-so. Recalls happen when the losing political party takes to the warpath. Recalls happen when deep-pocket special interests and multimillionaires pay to collect the signatures. Darryl Issa, a wealthy California congressman, decided to mount a recall campaign against the California governor. He did it, for $1.5 million.

    Recall is explicitly about empowering the people who lost and the party that lost, the political minority. It’s a direct assault on our majoritarian system and raises the specter of a permanent election cycle. Recall gives the losers a second, a third, and a fourth bite at the apple. Where’s the sense in that?

    Recall encourages governance by public opinion poll. Don’t we already complain that our leaders lack backbone? Why would we want to make it even less likely that public officials will follow conscience and constitution? Why push them into an even greater dependence on the whims of a changeable majority? Well, you may say, recall doesn’t happen all that often. But the threat of recall is always there. Just ask the subjects of California recall efforts, Governors Ronald Reagan, Pat Brown, Pete Wilson and Jerry Brown.

    Who gets recalled? I’ll tell you who: the official who ordered the municipal swimming pool desegregated; the lawmaker who stood up for minority rights, especially when that minority is feared or despised by the majority. Alexander Hamilton put it like this: “The recall will render the senator a slave to all the capricious humors among the people.”

    Why is there a sudden and overwhelming need to end a term in the middle? The election cycles that are the subject of this recall amendment are short. We don’t enjoy life appointments. Not even the six-year term of a United States Senator. No. Our terms are for two years or four, not a moment longer.

    And there’s a perfectly good mechanism under our constitution to send us packing if the circumstances warrant. It’s called impeachment. If we betray the public trust, if we’re derelict in our duties, we can—and should—be impeached. But you have to have evidence to impeach. You have to charge the lawmaker or executive with—something. This recall amendment requires nothing, no statement of fault, no list of improprieties. It’s enough to recall if you don’t like the way the governor blow dries his hair or you don’t like the cut of the Attorney General’s pantsuits. Our current constitutional framework is sound. Frequent elections guarantee accountability to the electorate. Impeachment gives us a means to oust officials who’ve crossed the line. And government by public opinion poll is not good enough for the people of this state. The right vote on HJRCA 28 is a no vote.


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Paid for by Barbara Flynn Currie for State Representative Committee. A copy of our report filed with the State Board of Elections is (or will be) available for purchase from the State Board of Elections, Springfield, Illinois. Contributions are not tax deductible. State law requires that we report the occupation and name of the employer of any individual who contributes over $500.