What attorneys live in Madison County's newly drawn Subcircuit 1?
The answer could help explain why the Democratically-controlled state legislature rammed through a bill that overhauls Madison County's judiciary so that, consequently, two sitting Republican circuit judges cannot run for office as they had planned later this year.
Circuit Judge Christopher Threlkeld lives in the new Subcircuit 2 and Circuit Judge Amy Sholar lives in the new Subcircuit 3. They had announced plans to run for the positions they currently hold by temporary appointment as resident circuit judges - meaning voters in all of Madison County would have decided those elections.
Rep. Jay Hoffman and Sen. Rachelle Crowe voted for the legislation.
The bill that many have called "egregious" and threatening to the fairness and integrity of the judiciary passed the House and Senate on party lines late on Wednesday night, without public hearing. It restructures elections so that Madison County circuit judges - eight of them - are elected by voters only per subcircuit.
If enacted by the Governor, elections for the first three vacancies that occur on Madison County's circuit bench will take place in Subcircuit 1. Elections for the subsequent three vacancies will take place in Subcircuit 2 and the two after that will occur in Subcircuit 3.
Vacancies occur when judges retire, or otherwise leave the bench.
In effect, voters in the largest geographic subcircuit (3) could be waiting many, many years before casting a ballot for an elected judge. Even if that were to occur 10 years from now, the subcircuits could be redrawn following the 2030 decennial census.
The seats currently occupied by Threlkeld and Sholar are considered vacancies for this year's election cycle. Threlkeld was appointed in 2020 to fill the Dugan vacancy and Sholar was appointed last April to fill the Tognarelli vacancy.
The three subcircuits of Madison County contain populations close to 90,000 each.
Subcircuit 1 is the western portion of the county running north from Alton to the southern border, but it also is gerrymandered to the east into northern Edwardsville, to include the Fox Creek Golf community. The most compact of the three is Subcircuit 2, which includes Edwardsville south to Collinsville. Subcircuit 3 is the eastern portion which stretches from the northwest corner to the southeast corner of the county, including Highland.
All of Bond County, which combines with Madison County to form the Third Judicial Circuit, will become Subcircuit 4 with a population of less than 17,000. One resident circuit judge serves Bond County.
State Rep. Amy Elik (R-Fosterburg) was strongly opposed to the measure. She said there has been no satisfactory answer as to why these changes were needed or wanted.
"The original answer was for equity purposes," Elik said. "However, there was never an explanation for splitting up into subcircuits, never an explanation for how that would add more more opportunity to elect minority judges."
Democrats have held control of the Third Judicial Circuit for decades. The circuit's nine elected judges have appointment power of the bench's 13 associate judges. At present, two of the 13 associate judges are Black - Associate Judges Veronica Armouti and Ryan Jumper.
Madison County's Black population is approximately 9% of the total.
The bill that passed on Wednesday also added subcircuits to other judicial circuit across the state, but only the changes to Madison and Lake county courts will be in force for the 2022 election cycle. Changes made to several other circuits go into effect in 2024.
"It's disgusting," Elik said of the bill, HB3138. "It's politics at its worst. I wish I could say that I am surprised."
Elik said the bill's language was not clear about residency requirements. She said that when she asked sponsor, Rep. Elizabeth Hernandez (D-Cicero), on the House floor before the vote, "she stumbled."
Elik also said that as she understands the bill, residency of the subcircuit is a requirement, but as of "when" was unclear.
Candidates running for office in Illinois can begin circulating petitions Jan. 13.
In the Senate, Republican Jason Plummer said Democrats rammed through the legislation on a "resistant" population, in the "dark of night."
"Nothing mandates or suggests they need to do this or they should do this," Plummer stated.
"This offensive act merely proves their ultimate desire – to move away from impartial courts unimpeded by politics to a judiciary held hostage by politicians and that will assist the Democrat majority, as well as their special interest allies, in two ways: 1) advancing an extreme agenda that does not reflect the values of the people of Illinois, and 2) that will be economically harmful to workers, families, and businesses throughout our great state."
Madison County Chief Judge William Mudge provided the following statement on Thursday afternoon:
"Per the Illinois Constitution, the makeup of judicial circuits is a legislative matter, not the courts. HB3138 is a comprehensive bill addressing the creation or modification of sub-circuits in numerous circuits and counties throughout the state, including the Third Judicial Circuit.
"The bill does not affect the number of circuit judge positions we have now (9) but rather creates four sub-circuits within the Third Judicial Circuit, numbered 1 through 4 from the west to the east. The bill does not affect sitting elected circuit judges or retention races but does come into play in electing circuit judges for both current and future judicial vacancies.
"The judges elected for the first three judicial vacancies will be elected in the first sub-circuit. The proponents of the bill stated that it creates diversity by ensuring that future candidates for judicial office are geographically spread out throughout Madison County in line with the census data. Based on that data they contain roughly equal population numbers but for the 4th, as Bond County is populated far more sparsely than Madison County.
"Currently there are no circuit judges living within the new first sub-circuit. The next three vacancies will be elected from the second sub-circuit. The following two vacancies will be filled from the third sub-circuit and one judge is elected from Bond County, which is currently filled by Judge Chris Bauer.
"Regardless of where any of the judges reside they all will preside in our courthouses in the county seats and provide for the administration of justice just as they always have. So in regard to the providing of judicial services this bill will have no impact in that regard."