Will County Gazette

During a news conference on Sept. 21, Illinois state Rep. Mark Batinick (R-Plainfield) voiced his support for a bill that would allow for the recall of state leaders. 

HJRCA 4 would provide for the recall of all state executive branch officers, legislative leaders, the Auditor General, members of the General Assembly and local government officials.

"This isn’t about one office or one person, it’s about a culture of corruption that's been throughout the state and local government in Illinois. We have a 60% threshold in this legislation in the house that is HJRCA 4," Batinick said during a news conference. "This shouldn’t be a situation where you see the president's popularity go above and below 50% all the time. There has to be a supermajority of people that say that person needs to be removed from office." 

The bill would also codify a process to determine the line of succession for state leaders for recalls.

"Another one, and this is really important, versus what most other states do, we advocate for the normal line of succession. Take the California recall–there wouldn't be a second question on the ballot. If you’re going to recall the governor, the lieutenant governor would become governor. If you recall a state senator or state rep, normal process of when a state rep or state senator resigns would fall into place. It would take away the incentive to use a recall for partisan political purposes. We’ve seen in other states where the legislature is really close and will try to use a recall to win back the party from one side or the other; that’s not the purpose of this.

"Another thing we did was, the way we have it set it up, is that any recall will happen at the next regularly scheduled election," Batinick added. "So you are never more than 10 months away from the next election."

The bill would also implement recall procedures for certain state leaders appointed directly by the Senate and the House.

"Finally, and this is kind of a unique one, is we allow the recall of the Senate President, the Speaker of the House and the Auditor General. These people are obviously appointed by the Senate and the House. The Auditor General is a constitutional office. They have a lot of power over the state and are really only directly affected by the district that votes for them, so we feel that when those people are so powerful that there should be the potential for checks and balances from people statewide."

HJRCA 4 would also make changes to the procedures to recall the governor.