William Taft was president of the United States, and the U.S.
Department of Labor did not yet exist. Ragtime was on the rise as a
music genre, and the Titanic was in its final stages of
construction.
It was 1911 ““ the year California’s recall law was
born under the leadership of Hiram Johnson, the state’s newly
elected progressive Republican governor.
According to a Minnesota House Research Department report,
California was the second state to pass a recall law, preceded only
by Oregon, which passed its law in 1908. By 1914, seven more states
allowed the recall of state officials.
The wave of recall laws passed in the early 1900s was part of
the Progressive Movement, which was inspired by public outrage at
poor labor conditions and corporate domination of U.S. politics in
that era.
In California, the Southern Pacific Railroad company controlled
every level of state politics. Progressives in the state wanted
increased regulation of the railroad, hoping to bring an end to the
corruption that plagued the California political scene.
Johnson, a lawyer from Sacramento, earned public attention
during the trial of San Francisco’s corrupt political boss,
Abraham Ruef. Johnson replaced Francis Heney, the original
prosecutor in the case who was shot in the courtroom.
Johnson successfully prosecuted Ruef, who was convicted of
bribery in 1908. Because of his reputation as the man who cleaned
up corruption in San Francisco, Johnson, supported by progressives
within the Republican party, won the state’s 1910
gubernatorial election.
By the end of Johnson’s first year in office, California
voters had increased control of government. For the first time,
voters could create laws and amend the constitution by sponsoring
initiatives and veto legislative acts through referendum.
Voters also gained the right to remove elected officials from
office ““ the right to recall. Progressive thinkers in the
nation applauded Johnson’s efforts, and in 1912, he ran for
U.S. vice president on the Progressive ticket under Theodore
Roosevelt.
Though Johnson and Roosevelt lost the election, Johnson was
elected to serve on the U.S. Senate in 1916 on a progressive
Republican platform. However, progressive concerns were gradually
replaced by others, as a new era emerged and the world became
entrenched in the Great Depression, and then World War II.
Though Johnson himself became increasingly conservative as he
continued to serve as a senator, his legacy lives on.
Today, 17 states allow voters to recall elected officials, with
Minnesota adding itself to the list in 1996.
For a recall election to occur in California, 12 percent of the
number of voters who voted in the last gubernatorial election must
sign a petition in favor of a recall.
California’s law differs in that aspect from recall laws
in other states, many of which require 25 percent of the last vote
to sign petitions. According to the Minnesota report, Kansas
requires only 10 percent, and at the high end, Wisconsin requires
35 percent.
The Minnesota report also indicates that some states specify
grounds for recalling officials. These range from having a felony
conviction to incompetence or “a lack of fitness.”
California requires recall proponents to submit a list of reasons
for recalling officers, but petitions are granted regardless of the
stated reasons.
The only governor to be recalled in the history of the United
States was Lynn Frazier of North Dakota, who served during World
War I and was recalled in 1921 ““ one year after the
state’s recall law was passed.
Former Arizona Gov. Evan Mecham would have been subjected to a
recall election, but the state Senate impeached him in 1988 before
the election could take place.
California governors have weathered 31 recall attempts, with
former Gov. Ronald Reagan the target of three of those.
To run in a California recall election, according to the
California Secretary of State Web site, candidates can submit 65
signatures and pay a $3,500 filing fee, or submit 10,000 signatures
to waive the fee.
In 1927, the filing fee to run for governor was changed from $50
to 2 percent ““ currently $3,500 ““ of the
governor’s first-year income.