Metro East Sun

State Rep. Charlie Meier (R-Okawville) is lashing out against Senate Bill 2406, legislation that would redraw the circuit court maps.

Meier recently blasted the measure on Twitter as a “very bad bill” intended to pack the St. Clair County Court System.

Meier has long been a critic of the bill, insisting that it was created in secrecy and without input from those who may know best in terms of what impact the measure could have.

"I've talked to a lot of different judges, including Supreme Court judges," he said. "None of them knew this bill was coming. Isn't the judiciary a separate branch of government? Shouldn't they be allowed to make decisions?”

Meier thinks there’s a clear and obvious reason for that.

"It has nothing to do with making a better judicial system in the state of Illinois,” he said. “This is to pack the court in St. Clair County."

The measure proposed by Rep. Jay Hoffman (D-Belleville) proposes extracting Monroe, Washington, Randolph and Perry counties off the 20th Judicial Circuit and making St. Clair County a circuit unto itself.

Meier said real estate taxes will increase to pay for the added administrative costs of creating the new 24th judicial circuit. The change would take place in December 2022, following the general election.  

As recently as 2018, Democrats netted three judgeship victories, but the warning signs were made clearer in terms of the party’s dwindling popularity in the area.

Chris Kolker ran as a resident circuit judge among St. Clair County-only voters and won by about 12,000 votes, while Heinz Rudolf and John O’Gara ran at-large in all the circuit’s counties and won by about 5,000 and 4,000 votes.

A short time later, President Biden registered just 31 26, 24 and 21 percent of the vote in Monroe, Perry, Randolph, and Washington counties respectively.