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No red wave nationally, but Republicans see strong showing in Madison Co.

By Pat Pratt

ppratt@timestribunenews.com

While the touted “red wave” failed to materialize on the national stage, Republicans fared exceptionally well in the Nov. 8 election in Madison County.

Voters in Troy decided Stacey Pace, a Republican, should retain her seat on the Madison County Board in the District 2 race. The district supported Pace over Democrat challenger Charles “CJ” Metheny, by a sizable vote margin, 2,741 to 1,440, or or 65% to 34%. 

In the Madison County Board District 26 race, which includes Glen Carbon, Republican Jason Palmero, by a much closer margin, defeated Democrat Collin VanMeter. Unofficial results in that race show a margin of 51.21% for Palmero and 48.79% for VanMeter, 2,078 votes to 1,980. 

In the Illinois House of Representatives District 111 race, incumbent Amy Elik beat Democrat challenger Joe Silkwood by a margin of about 13%. Elik received in total 19,823 votes to Silkwood’s 15,173, 56.6% to 43.4% The district includes Alton, Wood River and Pontoon Beach to Granite City. 

In the District 112 state house race, one of few Democrat victories in Madison County happened when Katie Stewart kept her seat. She overcame Republican Jennifer Korte by about 1,800 votes, 13,588 to 11,735 for Korte. The 112 district includes parts of Edwardsville, Glen Carbon, Maryville and Collinsville. 

In addition, Republicans picked up the sheriff’s office with Jeff Conner running unopposed. Another unopposed race saw Republican Chris Slusser elected as county treasurer. Incumbent County Clerk Debra D. Ming-Mendoza lost that race to Republican challenger Linda Andreas, 46,842 votes to 49,573 for Andreas. 

Three judicial subcircuit seats went to Republican contenders, but none were an overwhelming victory. 

In the closest of the three judicial races, Republican Christopher Threlkeld narrowly beat his opponent John Barry Julian by 400 votes – 13,439 to 13,049. Republican Tim Berkley overcame opponent A. Ryan Jumper by a margin of 13,7490 to 12,678 and Republican Amy Sholar beat Democrat contender Ebony Huddleston by about a 12% margin, 14,994 to 11,556. 

For the Illinois 56th District Senate seat, Democrat Kris Tharp was defeated by Erica Harriss in a fairly close race. Harriss garnered just over 52% of the vote to Tharp’s just under 48%. The district includes several cities and areas of Madison County.  

Collinsville residents will retain home rule status following overwhelming voter support. Those in favor of home rule reflected more then 72% of votes to about 28% in opposition. Total vote counts were 5,442 to 2,106. 

While it has no legal bearing, voters also overwhelmingly supported choosing county judges across the board, as opposed to only those running in subcircuits put in place by the Illinois General Assembly. 

The judicial advisory question placed on the ballot by the county board showed more voter support than any other on local item the ballot, with 82,018 of voters choosing to elect all three judges, as opposed to 11,679 favoring the current subdistrict structure. 

Another non-binding ballot question, asked if tax-supported libraries and schools promote drag queen events to minors. Voters chose “no” by a margin of 69% to 31%, 3,918 votes to 1,741.  

According to the county clerk’s office, 97,814 of the county’s 180,588 registered voters cast a ballot in the midterm election, a turnout of 54%. That number was significantly lower then the 2020 midterm election, which showed turnout of more than 74% – 138,306 voters of 186,358 registered.

 

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