The Headlines
This week, both Voters Not Politicians and the MICRC launched the first phases of work in the state senate redraw process. VNP hosted a virtual Michigan Redistricting town hall to reach out to voters in affected districts, as the commission heard expert presentations and presented their full redraw timeline at their meeting on April 18th.
And for decades, Michigan has lagged behind other states in ethics and transparency in our state government. Now, the consequences of our weak standards couldn’t be more obvious, as a former House Speaker has been charged with 13 felony counts for allegedly using taxpayer dollars, nonprofits and political funds for his personal benefit.
Fortunately, with the pro-voter majority restored in the House after this week’s special elections, the legislature now has the opportunity to pass reforms that provide for real transparency and accountability for elected officials. They also have the opportunity to pass even more voter protection legislation, which I discussed in this piece for The Guardian.
The Details
Redistricting
- On April 17th, VNP hosted a virtual Michigan Redistricting town hall to inform voters in the affected Senate districts about the upcoming redraw.
- I kicked off the event by giving an overview of the redistricting criteria and the purpose of this redraw.
- VNP was joined by MICRC Executive Director Edward Woods III, MICRC chair Anthony Eid, and immediate past chair Cynthia Orton as they discussed the upcoming redraw schedule and opportunities for citizens from the affected districts to participate.
- The commission held its scheduled business meeting on April 18th. Commissioners heard presentations from VRA, partisan fairness, and mapping experts in preparation for their first Senate mapping session on Tuesday, April 23rd at 4 PM.
- VNP is concerned about advice given by Dr. Lisa Handley, who essentially told the commission that they shouldn’t worry about partisan fairness measures getting worse (further from zero) in the redraw as long as they don’t get too close to the (abysmal) partisan fairness scores we had last decade.
- Commissioners continue to ask about the meaning of incremental changes in the scores without getting any satisfactory answers. We plan to see what we can do to help, and we’ll continue to urge the commission to work to optimize all of the constitutional criteria while they redraw the senate districts.
- The commission also presented its official redraw schedule during the meeting.
- The commission will hold mapping sessions from April 23rd until May 21st, including three in-person public hearings in Metro Detroit.
- By May 22nd, the commission will propose draft maps to the court.
- Public comment will be open through June 21st, including three more in-person public hearings in Metro Detroit.
- Final maps will be submitted to the court by June 27th.
Ethics and Accountability Reforms
- Voters Not Politicians has been working with lawmakers on a series of legislative reforms to address ethics, transparency, and accountability in our state government. From enabling real time campaign finance rule enforcement to implementing expansive lobbying reform, the Michigan legislature has an opportunity to enact meaningful reforms in 2024. House Democrats are leading the way, but it remains to be seen if these much needed reforms will move forward.
- VNP has been lobbying Sen. Moss’s office to strengthen proposed reforms to Michigan’s currently lackluster Freedom of Information Act. Although the reforms were originally sold as a simple extension of the existing FOIA to the legislature and executive offices, our volunteers have raised concerns about exemptions that significantly weaken the package.
- On Thursday, VNP Programs Director Kim Murphy-Kovalick testified before the House Ethics and Oversight committee in support of HB 5586, which would close the lawmaker-to-lobbyist revolving door with a one-year cooling off period. Delaying the transition from lawmaker to lobbyist by one year will help prevent conflicts of interest in the legislature and protect the public’s trust in our government.
- Part of Kim’s testimony, “‘Voters want confidence that their elected representatives are focused on policies that best can serve people, not auditioning for their next job as a lobbyist,” was quoted in both Gongwer and the Detroit Free Press.
What’s Next
Voters Not Politicians will continue our education and outreach efforts by hosting several in-person redistricting town halls in the affected senate districts. We will also launch digital education resources to be shared with communities and partners across the state.
We’re looking forward to working with the legislature to move forward on some long-awaited pro-voter legislation, including passing the Michigan Voting Rights Act, ending prison gerrymandering, and finally banning guns at polling places. We will also continue advocating for stronger ethics and transparency laws in our state government, with the support of our grassroots citizen lobbying program.
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