Dupage Policy Journal

GLEN ELLYN – Heidi Holan, who is vying to represent the 46th District in the Illinois House, is one of 16 GOP state legislative candidates backing a proposed bill that would allow Chicago voters to recall Mayor Rahm Emanuel.

“Quite frankly, I think everyone would agree that we need to hold our elected officials accountable, and this is simply a mechanism we are proving to the City of Chicago to have a recall if the electorate in Chicago so chooses,” Holan recently told the DuPage Policy Journal.

“I think it is one of those common-sense-type reforms that everyone thought was in place until we started looking into it and realized they don’t have that ability,” the GOP candidate said.

Holan, who serves as the state coordinator for parentalrights.org, is part of an ad hoc coalition that released a statement in support of State Rep. La Shawn Ford’s (D-Dist. 8) proposed House Bill (H.B.) 4356, which would establish a process to hold a mayoral recall vote.

The embattled mayor and the Chicago political power structure have failed voters and their families, these 16 GOP candidates said, and they vow to back H.B. 4356 if they are elected in 2016.

“To be honest, I don’t know why” the bill wouldn’t pass,” Holan said. “When you read the bill, it is very well written, it is simple, it is short and it’s common sense.”

Holan also said that such a recall process already exists for the state's governor, while other states also use a similar process.

“We are not reinventing the wheel,” Holan said. “It is just Chicago didn’t have it.”

In fact, Illinois should have the recall process in place statewide for all elected officials, Holan said.

“I don’t know the hesitation on why they wouldn’t sign off on a common-sense bill that I think everyone assumes is in place but isn’t,” Holan said.

H.B. 4356 also has bipartisan support, Holan said. “So it is not something that should be polarizing in any way, shape or form.”

The bill “simply puts the parameters in place for a recall if the electorate in Chicago so chooses.”

Holan said voters and legislators must decide whether they want to maintain the status quo or try to take control of Chicago.

“I don’t know” the answer to that question, "but this is really a common-sense bill and … there shouldn’t be any hesitation in signing onto this," Holan said.