Part of the series, Assault on Florida.
Down here in Florida we gaze wistfully northward to Wisconsin. We really, really wish we had what those cheeseheads have — the legal mechanism to recall our governor. Folks in Wisconsin got fed up with Gov. Scott Walker’s antics, so they have initiated steps to kick him out of office — because they can.
Down here, we watch in horror as Gov. Rick Scott eviscerates education, coddles corporations and cocks up everything else from insurance to collective bargaining to assistance to the disabled, drug-addled and disenfranchised. But there’s hope on the horizon!
Rick Kriseman, a Democrat representative from St. Petersburg has introduced House Bill 787, which would provide a mechanism to recall the governor, lieutenant governor, cabinet members and legislators:
Recall: Provides that Governor, Lieutenant Governor, member of Cabinet, or legislator may be recalled from office; requires that proponents of recall register as political committee; prescribes methods & timeframes for initiating & conducting recall; provides ballot language; provides that removal of Governor from office includes removal of Lieutenant Governor; authorizes adoption of rules.
Effective Date: on the effective date of an amendment to the State Constitution approved by the electors at the general election to be held in November 2012 which authorizes, or removes impediment to, enactment by the Legislature of the provisions of this act.
There’s only a couple of things wrong with this noble but inevitably doomed effort:
- It wouldn’t even come up for a referendum until 2012, by which time Florida will have sunk past South Carolina as the asshole of America.
- All 10 of its co-sponsors are Democrats, which means it has a majority of Democrats in the state House, which is like spit on a hot sidewalk.
- It has to make it out of committee, be passed by the Republican-dominated House and Senate and be signed into law by our Tea-Bagger-In-Chief, Florida CEO Rick Scott.
In other words, HB 787 has as much chance as a snowball on South Beach of passing. But we applaud the effort, guys, and we’re behind you 100 percent. Now, let’s revisit that impeachment gambit …
Fair Districts placed a constitutional amendment on the ballot by petition and then got it passed. That is the way to get recall included in the Florida Constitution.
You’re absolutely right, Takebackflorida, that an amendment is the way to go, even if our current governor and legislature are doing everything in their power to have the fair districting amendments overturned.
With Scott’s approval ratings lower than the 7th layer of hell, I have no reason to believe that an ammendment couldn’t or wouldn’t work. In fact, I’d up the ante and suggest we start taking bets on how fast it would take to get the required signatures.
By the by – basically you need to get 5% of the voters to sign the petition within a 30-day period.
Then the commissioner gets to submit a statement of defense which is put on new petition forms, and you go get 15% of the voters to sign the forms within a 60-day period.
How many voters turned out in the last election?
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