Democrats in the Michigan Senate want Republican colleagues punished for questioning election results
Updated Jan 13, 2021;
Posted Jan 13, 2021
GOP Chair Meshawn Maddock films inside while election challengers allege blockage from bipartisan poll watching Wednesday Nov. 4, 2020 at the TCF Center in Detroit, Michigan. Nicole Hester/Mlive.com
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LANSING, MI - The first day of a new Michigan Legislature’s session usually involves procedural votes and some introduction of new bills.
The start of the 2021 session Wednesday was a stark departure, as some Senate Democrats urged for a punishment for the 11 Republican colleagues that asked for further investigation of unfound claims of election fraud hours before Trump supporters attacked the U.S. Capitol last week.
Michigan Republicans who spent months pushing false claims of voter fraud condemned violence that erupted Wednesday at the U.S. Capitol, but denied their actions influenced rioters who supported President Donald Trump.
“Are we not allowed to look into election concerns?” said Sen. Tom Barrett, R-Potterville, one of 11 Michigan senators who sent a letter to Congress on Tuesday asking lawmakers to investigate voter fraud claims.
“Does looking into concerns make us violent?”
Such equivocations ring hollow to racial justice activists like Angela Waters Austin, founder and co-leader of Black Lives Matter Michigan.
She said Michigan has had several “dress rehearsals” for Wednesday’s mayhem, and all were preceded by partisan vitriol from Republicans who this year stoked anger about wearing masks during a pandemic, sowed doubts about the election and condemned protests for racial justice.
Who’s new in the Michigan House of Representatives
Updated Jan 05, 2021;
Posted Jan 05, 2021
The House Chamber pictured at the Michigan State Capitol in Lansing on Thursday, April 25, 2019.Neil Blake
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The new legislative session brings with it substantial turnover for the Michigan House of Representatives, which will have 28 new lawmakers serving their first full terms in office.
Most of the freshman class will fill House seats vacated by members who hit their six-year term limit serving in the state House, although some defeated incumbents or are replacing members who sought other offices last fall.
Speaker-elect Jason Wentworth, R-Clare, and Democratic Leader-elect Donna Lasinski, D-Scio Township, will fill the leadership slots left open by the departures of former Reps. Lee Chatfield and Christine Greig.
More than half of Michigan’s GOP senators air unfounded election concerns in letter to Congress
Updated Jan 06, 2021;
Posted Jan 06, 2021
State Sen. Tom Barrett, R-Charlotte, is one of the Michigan senators who signed a letter sent to Congress to investigate election fraud claims. Here he is talking with reporters after Governor Gretchen Whitmer s State of the State address to legislators on the House floor at the Michigan State Capitol in Lansing on Wednesday, January 29, 2020. (Mike Mulholland | MLive.com)Mike Mulholland | MLive.com
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LANSING, MI - Eleven of Michigan’s Republican state senators urged Congress to “pursue every available option” to investigate claims of election fraud in a letter before Wednesday’s joint session in Washington to count electoral votes for president.