SPRINGFIELD - Former state representative LaToya Greenwood has lost to Rep. Kevin Schmitt twice since she approved a gerrymander that legislators enacted for the safety of representatives Jay Hoffman and Katie Stuart.
Greenwood scored 47% in District 114 in 2022 and 48% this year.
Hoffman scored 59% against Ashley Hunsaker in District 113 in 2022 and ran without opposition this year.
Stuart scored 54% against Jennifer Korte in District 112 in 2022 and 55% against Jay Keeven this year.
Voters elected Greenwood six times starting in 2010.
In 2016, she defeated late radio personality Bob Romanik with 57%.
She defeated Jason Madlock with 58% in 2018 and Dave Barnes with 57% in 2020.
In 2021, legislators stretched District 114 nearly across the entire county yet they almost completely bypassed Belleville.
NAACP’s branch in East St. Louis challenged the map in 2021, claiming it protected white incumbents at the expense of black incumbent Greenwood.
Three appellate judges of the Seventh Circuit found legislators added blacks from District 113 to District 112, added blacks from District 113 to District 114, and moved whites into District 114.
They found District 114 expanded to rural St. Clair County and lost Belleville which had a larger black population.
They found the black voting age population decreased from 37% to 34% in District 114 and increased to 4% in District 112 and 31% in District 113.
They quoted testimony of legislative employee Jonathon Maxson who fielded direct and indirect requests from legislators regarding preferences for Metro East.
He testified that the goal was shoring up Democrat seats.
He testified that Hoffman wanted to maintain Belleville and be in a position where the districts would be at about an equal Democratic performance.
He testified that keeping Edwardsville together as District 112’s base was important for Stuart.
They quoted Greenwood who said, “To achieve maximization of Democratic performance in the Metro East region I worked with fellow Democratic members from the region to increase the Democratic Index of House District 112 while maintaining an equal Democratic index for House Districts 113 and 114.”
They found the NAACP didn’t prove that race predominated in configuration of districts.
“Indeed, the record could not be more clear that partisan politics, a legally acceptable criterion, controlled that decision,” they wrote.
They found the NAACP didn’t find a way to increase the black voting age population of District 114 without sacrificing or at least jeopardizing all three seats.