-By Phil Kadner, Southtown Star
Voters who want an opportunity to recall elected officials will get a chance to voice their anger in November.
Every 20 years, Illinois is required to ask voters if they want to hold a constitutional convention, and this is one of those years.
A recall amendment to the Illinois Constitution was killed in the state Senate after passing the House this year.
The good news is that a constitutional convention could take another look at recall. The bad news (according to critics) is that everything else would be up for grabs.
People opposed to a con-con (the abbreviation for constitutional convention) caution that special interest groups will come out of the woodwork to pursue their favorite causes.
There might be pressure to ban the sale of guns, make abortion illegal, force the public schools to teach creationism as science and legalize gay marriage.
Lt. Gov. Pat Quinn, a member of the last constitutional convention, contends such concerns are unfounded.
If voters approve a con-con, delegates to the convention would have to run for office in another election. In addition, any amendments they pass at the convention would have to be placed on a ballot for another public vote.
“I don’t know how we’ve reached the point in this state where we feel the citizens can’t be trusted with their own government,” Quinn said.
“We have people in Springfield who have simply refused to do their jobs, who have repeatedly ignored the will of the people, and they’re telling us that the worst thing that can happen is for the citizens of this state to have a say in their government.”
Quinn reminded me of the repeated campaign promises by state legislators to support school funding if elected and their repeated failures throughout the past 20 years to make good on that pledge.
“I think the people who voted for those individuals, who have repeatedly said they want school funding reform, should have an opportunity to amend the constitution for that purpose,” Quinn said.
State Sen. James Meeks (D-Chicago), who originally won his office running as an independent against an entrenched Democrat, recently told me he opposed the recall amendment because it seemed to be aimed at one individual: Gov. Rod Blagojevich.
Meeks said he felt it would be bad public policy to amend a constitution because one man is extremely unpopular.
I agree with him on that point.
But a constitutional convention would not be done in the heat of the moment. The referendum will be on the ballot in November. There would then be months spent in the delegate selection process. And it probably would be 2010 before constitutional amendments appeared on the ballot.
That may make it less attractive to people who want Blagojevich out of office now, but it makes it more appealing to people such as myself, who believe the democratic process in Illinois may be broken beyond repair.
Dawn Clark Netsch, a former gubernatorial candidate and, like Quinn, a delegate to the 1970 constitutional convention, said the problem with Illinois government has nothing to do with the constitution and everything to do with the people we elect to office.
Netsch and others contend we have a chance to recall those people every four years in regular elections.
But the fact is, in most elections for state office in Illinois there is very little competition.
The two parties, Democrat and Republican, spend hundreds of thousands of dollars to get their candidates elected in legislative races and millions in the gubernatorial campaigns.
In the unlikely event a primary election challenge surfaces, the parties often put up stalking horses to confuse voters and splinter the opposition vote.
My concern is that the two major political parties will use the same kinds of tactics if a constitutional convention is called.
Quinn still believes in the power of the people.
“The opponents of the constitutional convention are totally fearful of the people,” Quinn said. “Some members of the Legislature have total contempt for the public and feel they can’t handle anything.
“This is the ultimate in democracy. A constitutional convention is really an American concept.
“Even before our national government was formed, leaders in many of the colonies met to hold their own constitutional conventions. Those constitutions served as the basis for the U.S. Constitution.
“The very people who want to continue pay-for-play politics in Illinois now stand opposed to a constitutional convention.”
If you want to shake up the power brokers in Springfield, this may be the best way to do it.