MOUNT VERNON – Victory margins for Republicans keep growing at the Fifth District appellate court, where that party will now hold five of six elected seats.
Republican Mark Boie of Union County, who has served two years on the court by appointment, won a full term with 61 percent support on Tuesday.
Preliminary returns showed his opponent, Madison County Circuit Judge Sarah Smith, scored 29 percent in the 35 mostly rural counties of the district.
Smith carried St. Clair County with 52 percent and barely carried her own county, where 65,838 voters chose her and 65,676 chose Boie.
She congratulated Boie and also expressed “my heartfelt thanks to the voters of Southern Illinois who believed in me. I have zero regrets.”
Prior to 2016, St. Clair and Madison counties produced margins for Fifth District candidates too great for rural voters to overcome.
In 2016, Republican judge John Barberis of Madison County defeated Democrat Brad Bleyer of Marion by 56 percent to 44 percent.
Republican Justice Randy Moore of Carterville, who held a seat by appointment, defeated Democrat Jo Beth Weber of Mount Vernon by 54 to 46.
In 2018, Republican Justice David Overstreet of Mount Vernon, who held a seat by appointment, defeated Kevin Hoerner of Belleville by 59 to 41.
Overstreet’s seat at the Fifth District will require an appointment, because he won a Supreme Court seat with 62 percent on Tuesday.
His opponent, Justice Judy Cates, remains at the Fifth District as its only Democrat.
Justice Milton Wharton, a Democrat who held his seat by appointment, returned to retirement and opened the vacancy that Boie filled.
The smashing successes of Overstreet and Boie stand as a legacy of retiring Supreme Court Justice Lloyd Karmeier, who appointed them.