Court rules Tea Party can proceed with effort to recall Sen. Robert Menendez

[ccharles000]

A state appeals court today ruled New Jersey’s secretary of state must accept a petition a citizens group filed to recall U.S. Sen. Robert Menendez, but left open the question of whether the removal effort itself is constitutional.

The three-judge panel stayed its ruling to give Menendez (D-N.J.) the opportunity to appeal to the state Supreme Court.. The senator has 45 days to file an appeal but did not say today whether he would. He called the recall effort a "political stunt" that won’t distract him from doing his job.

"This an organization trying to undemocratically and unconstitutionally overturn an election in which more than 2 million New Jerseyans voted," said Menendez, whose term expires in 2012. "My focus continues to be on job creation legislation and delivering a successful extension of my local property tax relief bill."

http://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2010/03/court_says_nj_tea_party_cannot.html

[secondwind]

1. As usual, ccharles, thanks for keeping us informed of these races!

[ShadowLiberal]

2. If they allow this it'll unleash total chaos that benefits no one in the long run

From what I read 18 states allow recalling politicians (not sure which ones), yet it's never been done on senators, it's unclear if they have the legal authority.

I can guarantee you our founding fathers would not have wanted senators to be recalled, there's a reason why senators weren't even elected in the first place when they wrote the constitution, to shield the institution from political pressure, and stop a tyranny of the majority from happening so easily. When they amended the constitution to change this, I guarantee you that most people who voted for the change never intended to allow senators to be recalled by petitions at the drop of a hat.

Besides that, stop and think for a second, what has Robert Menendez done lately that would make him deserve a recall? He hasn't been in the national news... like ever, except for brief mentions in his last election in 2006. He's mentioned at some political news sites as the chairman of the democratic senate committee in charge of electing more democrats as senators, so maybe that would make him a more appealing target to the tea partiers, but there's nothing wrong with doing that.

And what's his approval ratings? Well according to pollster.com (like below) Menendez has a net -3% approval rating, 40% disapprove of his job, and 37% approve, it's a net negative yeah, but LOTS of politicians still in office today in states allowing recalls have numbers much worse then that, so clearly there's no overwhelming demand for his head, he's not in net double digit disapproval, he's nowhere near as bad off as Bush was at the end of his term.

http://www.pollster.com/polls/nj/jobapproval-senmenendez.php

You may think it's hard to get signatures to recall someone, but it's not. Candid Camera did an experiment after the California recall time, collecting signatures to recall teachers, and other state and local people, and they got people to sign it who knew absolutely nothing about them, who had never even heard of them! Heck, there was one guy who asked "is he a democrat or a republican" about the guy they asked him to sign a petition to recall, and they told him "I don't know, lets just recall him now and sort that all out later", and then the idiot signed the petition! I think the hosts even said it was scary to them how easy it was to get people to sign recall petitions about people who they knew nothing about.

If the courts allow a recall election to be held then this will set off a chain reaction to cause absolute chaos, with conservatives trying to recall every single democrat elected statewide in the states that allow recalls, even ones who they know they stand zero shot at beating, after all no one thought they could win Kennedy's seat! And democrats will retaliate and do the same thing to statewide elected republican officials in states that allow recalls to. How can you possibly do your job of governing as an elected official if you have to keep on running reelection every few months because of the same jerks voting to recall you? You'll have to spend all your time campaigning and raising cash then.