‘Party preservation at its finest.’ Republicans irked by St. Clair County district map
Editor’s note: This story has been updated to show the public hearing for the proposed St. Clair County redistricting map will be at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday in county board meeting room B-564. A special Judiciary Committee meeting regarding the map will be at 7 p.m. Tuesday and a special St. Clair County Board meeting regarding the map will be at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday.
A plan to redistrict the St. Clair County Board was met with more pushback Monday night from residents who say the new map favors incumbent Democrats.
“The voters should be picking their county board members, the county board members should not be picking their voters and that’s what’s happening here,” said O’Fallon resident Michael Butler. “It’s a shame, it’s disappointing, it’s aggravating and it’s why you see the participation in the elections in St. Clair County that you do.”
For months, county Republicans have alleged that several redistricting maps proposed by County Chairman Mark Kern have been unfairly drawn, arguing that they do not reflect a population shift within the county.
Their complaints are similar to those made by county Republican Party Chairperson Cheryl Mathews and board member Ed Cockrell, who filed a lawsuit against Kern and County Clerk Tom Holbrook.
At Monday night’s board meeting, Kern presented a newly drawn map he said is based on U.S. Census data that was released to the county in August. He said the new map addresses those issues.
“It (the new map) uses the new census data that shows population loss in the county which is why we were able to eliminate a seat, which saves taxpayer dollars,” Kern said, “So that’s a good thing and it’s a fair map.”
The map was made available to the public only minutes before the meeting in large rolled-up printouts but was available on the county website the Tuesday morning. It can be viewed here: www.co.st-clair.il.us/public-notices
Butler and others alleged during the public comment portion of the meeting that the redistricting process has been lopsided from the start.
“What we want to see reflected in this map is an accurate adjustment based on the data,” Butler said. “We’re not asking for a map that is a Republican majority or a Democrat majority — we’re asking that it’s fair and that it accurately represents the changes throughout the county and that gives voters a chance to be heard.”
Delayed redistricting
Every 10 years the county board votes on adjusting district lines to reflect population changes. New redistricting maps are usually required much earlier by state law but deadlines were extended due to the pandemic and a related delay in the release of 2020 U.S. Census results.
By statute, redeveloped maps, like St. Clair County’s, must be passed by next Wednesday. The county’s original map was presented in May but laws passed this year by Gov. J.B. Pritzker allowed for the county board chairman to redevelop maps once census data was released.
The map presented and passed in May used information from the census bureau’s American Community Survey, which gathers census-like data year-round instead of every 10 years. That map is the focus of the lawsuit against Kern and the county.
The lawsuit, filed by Cockrell, who represents District 7, and Mathews, argues the county’s originally proposed map is gerrymandered and unfairly favors Democrats by adjusting district boundaries to favor incumbents. It also argues that the map was drawn illegally because it did not use 2020 census data.
Mathews and Cockrell have proposed their own map to the judge.
The county has argued to have the suit dismissed. A stay on the suit was granted this week as new details concerning the newly proposed map are reviewed.
Some say concerns are ignored
Several other residents of the county commented on the mapping process Monday night, including Mary Thurman, who said the maps that have been proposed so far disenfranchise voters and don’t reflect population shifts.
“When we look at the maps that we’ve seen so far they seem to protect incumbents of the majority party,” Thurman said. “In doing so, that really disenfranchises the voters of those very districts because they do not have the option to vote for somebody else… Those voters have no other choice.”
The 2020 census data showed a drop of roughly 3.8% in population since 2010 in St. Clair County. Republicans argue much of the population is shifting away from the Mississippi River and areas like East St. Louis and Belleville and further into communities like O’Fallon and Mascoutah.
Thurman accused the county leadership of trying to create a “super majority” with their newly proposed map by curbing Republican districts and strengthening Democratic districts for the incumbent that lives there.
“It’s not about trying to secure the seat of the incumbent,” Thurman added. “We should focus on equal representation for every voter of this county based on census data.”
Millstadt resident Wavey Lester said he feels as if the county hasn’t made any changes to address the concerns brought up by residents and the pending lawsuit in the past weeks and months. He said at a glance the newly proposed map has some of the same issues present on the former map.
“Every time we come here we voice our opinions and our concerns and the needs and wants of the constituents that these maps are designed to represent,” Lester said. “We are voicing the same concerns time after time after time and every map that subsequently comes out looks the same.”
Vote on map will be minutes after public hearing
A public hearing on the proposed map will be held Tuesday, Nov. 16, at 6:30 p.m. in county board meeting room B-564. The map will be voted on immediately after at a special meeting of the Judiciary Committee at 7 p.m. and the St. Clair County Board at 7:30 p.m.
Mathews, who attended but did not speak publicly at the meeting, said it would be “impossible” for the county to change anything on the map to reflect the public’s concerns on that schedule.
“I’m aggravated,” Mathews said. “They ask for public comment and then they vote on it. Five minutes between. There’s no chance to incorporate any questions or comments or changes. It seems kind of arbitrary.”
Several other speakers questioned if the entire county board has been involved in making the new maps. Kern responded that he had worked with “much” of the board to develop the maps.
Republican officials say new map has same issues
After the meeting, Republican board members crowded around the newly proposed map, which was posted on the wall of the county board room. Cockrell called Kern’s answers to the public typical “pad answers” and partisanship.
“Everybody in the county should be concerned. This is preservation of a majority party at its best, “Cockrell said. “The map speaks for itself.”
Republican board member Kevin Dawson of Mascoutah said the new map has amplified the issues the previous map created instead of addressing them. In his district, precincts, municipalities and townships are divided in the new plan, breaking up his district’s representation.
“I was told the effort to change the map from the prior version from May to now was to alleviate some of the concerns from the pending lawsuit. Well, this map doesn’t do that,” Dawson said. “This map only increases them.
“With regards to my specific county board district, the map in May was much better and I think we’re worse off than where we were then.”
New map addresses lawsuit, Kern says
Kern did not respond immediately to every question from the public as they were voiced, but after all public comments were heard listed the many Illinois codes passed that made redeveloping the map possible and noted that the new plan would save the county from spending further money on legal fees from an ongoing lawsuit.
In an interview after the meeting, Kern said the new map addresses the lawsuit by using U.S. Census data by basing the maps on the 2020 results, which shifted some district lines and eliminated a county board district due to the decrease in population.
He noted cutting a county board seat will also save taxpayer money. In 2020, every county board member was paid a salary of $19,419.
See how much county employees made at https://www.bnd.com/publicpay
He said that work has been ongoing on the map since May, adding that the map “largely stays the same” toward the center of the county.
Mathews said she expects the lawsuit to continue as the newly proposed map does not address the issues brought forward in the lawsuit.
As for criticism that there hasn’t been enough time or opportunity for public comment, Kern said there has been plenty of time since the first map was proposed in May and available for viewing in May.
“There’s been ample time for comment and, of course, I’ve worked with much of the county board,” Kern said. “Not everyone is going to be happy.”
This story was originally published November 9, 2021 at 2:44 PM.