Putting appointed officials aside for now. If the voters put them in and they pull a bait and switch, why shouldn’t they be capable of being recalled? I would assume it would need a higher threshold than just the normal vote, similar to impeachment.
A good example is Fetterman. He’s completely done a 180 and not what the people voted for, yet as I understand it, Congress-critters can’t be recalled.
People don’t like politicians, billionaires can pay people to stand around in street corners and get schoolboard representatives recalled, even if it fails that that’s a ton of money the union now has to spend defending a person that was democratically elected just months ago.
Fair point in practice, but in theory that’s a campaign finance regulation problem not a recall election problem
True, if we repeal Citizens United, then the worst recalls go away.
But the bar should still be much higher than it is in CA, Oakland just had its mayor & DA recalled over fear of crime, while violent crime was declining rapidly and before any of their policies could have an impact anyway (recall efforts were started on Day 1), I don’t think I’ll ever be convinced recalls are a good idea unless a grand jury can be convinced of meaningful corruption.
Yeah, I’m not totally sure I would go as far as requiring criminal charges to kick things off, but their ought to be some restraints on recalls. Besides stability in government being at least somewhat important, it’s unfair to the past electorate who voted whichever candidate in for a given term to have a different electorate (because new people are always becoming eligible and other people are passing away or otherwise becoming inelligble) come along and mess with that.
I’m fine without criminal charges but someone should have to convince a jury of my peers that there is corruption and not just political differences at play