For nearly a half century Black Democrats from East St. Louis have owned the IL District 114 House Seat.
The late Rep. Wyvetter Younge held the office from 1975-2008. The late Eddie Lee Jackson, Sr. was Younge’s successor and Rep. LaToya Greenwood has held the office since 2017.
That all ended recently following the redistricting and redrawn election map for District 114, which led to the defeat of Greenwood by Republican Kevin Schmidt of Millstadt, Illinois.
And despite Schmidt receiving only 197 votes from East St. Louis to Greenwood’s 4,990, Schmidt won with an overall vote of 19,233 to Greenwood’s 17,177.
So, this begs the question can a Republican from a white rural community like Millstadt represent a Black urban community of Democrats like East St. Louis which, by and large, did not vote for him?
 Of course, Schmidt said the politically correct thing, that “I plan on working and speaking with the people there and hearing out what they need…” Yeah, right! That’s called rhetoric versus reality.
 Realistically, I don’t possess enough expletives in my vocabulary to express just how screwed ESL is when it comes to Schmidt’s election.
 Elections matter, folks and East Boogie has nothing coming from Mr. Schmidt because I assure you that, as a politician, he’s dancing with the political partner that brought him to the party.
 That’s despite the little-known fact that Millstadt, IL does have more Black residents than East St. Louis; approximately 29,000 versus 18,469, to be exact.
 Unfortunately, many of Millstadt’s Black residents happen to be permanent occupants of Sunset Garden of Memory Cemetery and don’t require much in the way of politics!
 The sad reality for area Democrats is that the redistricting, which critics refer to as “gerrymandering,” led to Greenwood’s midterm defeat. But state Democratic leaders allowed the district map to be redrawn and approved. It was signed by Governor Pritzker, despite the knee-jerk allegiance that East St. Louis voters have shown to the state Democratic party.
 Yet, Greenwood issued the perplexing statement that “Under the new map, I believe the 114th District will remain a strong district for African-American representation in Springfield and would not have supported the map if I believed otherwise.”
 To Rep. Greenwood I say that sometimes in politics you’ve just got to admit that you got played and learn from your lapse in judgement or naivete.
Schmidt, a chiropractor by profession, claims that he’ll establish a traveling district office to enable his constituents to meet with him regarding their concerns. Sounds good in an evasive sort of way.
 I say to East Boogie, good luck with that. You’d probably fair better scheduling a chiropractic appointment and discussing your political concerns as he cracks your back. But we shall see, and I plan to monitor Schmitt’s rhetoric versus our reality.
Email: jtingram_1960@yahoo.com Twitter@JamesTIngram
