Arizona republican., 1911-08-08
The Recall Joker.

More interesting than important, perhaps, is the discovery by Senator Heyburn of Idaho that there is a joker" in the recall provision of the Arizona constitution which could be used with ease to prevent the cleo ton of United States senators.
 The alleged joker is found in Section of Article VIII:
 No recall petition shall be circu- lated against any officer until he shall have held his office for period of six months, except that 1t may be filed against a member of the legis- lature at any time after five days from the beginning of the first ses- sion after his election"
 only twenty-five per cent of the voters at the previous election Icing necessary to force a recall election, Senator HeybUrn assumes that there would be no difficulty in securing such percentage in any legislative district.
 Leaving this proposition for a mo- ment, let us see what the effect of a recall petition might have on a senatorial election. It is provided that the recall election muse take place mot less than twenty, nor more than thirty days after such order" Assuming that a member of .ho 1o,i.Ior,,ra ,t-o,ld l,a,-a tho ad- vantage of the maximum time, he could be recalled thirtyfive days after the beginning of the session. It is very seldom that a legislature elects a United States senator in the early days of the session. Frequently such elections take place six weeks or more after the beginning of a session. Unless, therefore, the leg islators succeeded in electing a sena- tor within thirty-five days, recall pc titions could seriously interfere with such election.
 Senator Hayburn'S assumption that sufficient number of signers to a recall petition could be secured in any legislative district will be disputed by many. and affirmed quite as strongly by those who believe that signatures to a petition can be so easily obtained that any little group of men can, if sufficiently interested, secure the signatures of twenty per cent of the voters to any recall petition that may be circulated. Moth ing but an actual test of the ques- ton will determine which contention is right
 We have little fear, however, that Arizona will have to go unrepre- sented in the United States senate because of legislative recalls.
 What is most likely to happen, if the legislative recall ball is ever started rolling, is a general recall "shindy" covering the whole state. For instance, if the democrats of a given legislative districts should force a recall election upon a republican representative, republicans in some other district, represented by demo- crat. would certainly retaliate by forcing their representative to under go a recall election. The fires of partisanship thus kindled would quickly sweep over the whole state, and before the end practically all, if not all of the members of te legis- lature would be in the throes of a recall campaign. Fortunately, how ever. one dose of such foolishness would probably be sufficient to dis gust the people of the whole state with the idea of annoying public of ifcers from motives of mere partisan malice.
 And Senator Hepburn is wrong, we think, in taking it for granted that in making legislators subject to the recall within five days of the begin ming of their service instead of the six months applicable to other off cers. a joker was Intentionally in serted in the constitution. The most plausible explanation is, that it was realized that if the recall medicine is to be made of any avail against a member of the legislature it must be administered quickly. For a leg islator is not like other public off cers. a thing of glory for two years or more. A legislator is seen in the political sky for but moment, as it were, his term of active service covering but sixty days. And while nominaiIy he is a public officer dur ing a reriod of two years, he goes