North Cook News

A GOP candidate for a four-year Illinois State Senate seat firmly supports House Bill (H.B.) 4356, which would establish a procedure for an election to recall Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel, a member of the Democratic Party.

“This is an issue about the political elite doing anything they can to hold power,” Mel Thillens, a 2016 Republican candidate for District 28 of the State Senate, commented online today.

Specifically, H.B. 4356 would require 88,610 signatures, including the collection of 50 from each ward in the city, to prompt the Board of Elections to host a special recall election. If Emanuel is recalled, then a separate election would be held for prospective candidates, and the vice mayor would lead in the interim until a replacement is elected and sworn in to office.

The legislation was introduced in Springfield recently by Rep. La Shawn Ford (D-Dist. 8) against the backdrop of Emanuel’s sinking approval rating, which this month hit its lowest mark at 18 percent, according to a new poll of voters who say the current mayor is losing credibility.

“If I was in Springfield, I would co-sponsor the legislation and push for its passage,” Thillens told North Cook News recently. “I call on my opponent to do the same.” 

Thillens, a Park Ridge Park District commissioner and owner of Thillens Inc. who unsuccessfully vied for a state representative position in 2013, plans to run in the March Republican primary challenging incumbent District 28 State Sen. Laura Murphy (D), who just this fall was selected by Democratic leaders to replace predecessor Dan Kotowski (D), who resigned to take another job with just more than a year of his position to be covered. 

Murphy will run in the March Democratic primary and if she wins, plans to run in the general election. She did not respond to questions for this article by press time.

“Rahm and the Chicago political power structure have failed the students they are charged with educating and the families they are charged with physically protecting,” Thillens told North Cook News.

Thillens added that “it’s time to stand up and speak with moral clarity against the injustices bestowed upon us from the political status quo.”

This status quo, he added, “cares only about perpetuating their power at the expense -- financial and otherwise -- of those they have so grievously failed.”

Emanuel is scheduled to address the Chicago City Council at 9 a.m. Wednesday.