Republican Lloyd Karmeier has won a Supreme Court seat representing Illinois’ fifth district, which includes 36 southern counties and famed “judicial hellhole” Madison County. With 90 percent of precincts reporting early Wednesday morning, Karmeier had won 54 percent of the vote for a 40,000-plus vote lead over Democrat Gordon Maag.
The race, though it will not tilt the balance in the state’s top court, was widely seen as a referendum on the medical liability crisis in Downstate Illinois which has driven hundreds of specialist doctors into going without insurance, retiring or moving out of state.
The Supreme Court, which will now have a 4-3 composition of Democrats to Republicans, has ruled caps on jury awards as unconstitutional and overruled several other tort reform laws. Another impact of Karmeier’s victory is that, as a Supreme Court justice, he will now have the power to fill any judicial vacancies in the fifth district.
Karmeier was heavily supported by tort reform groups such as the Illinois Civil Justice League. Maag, an appellate court judge, was pilloried as a former Madison County trial lawyer and a member of the Illinois Trial Lawyers Association.
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