LANSING, Mich. -- A Republican state representative from Norton Shores says Democratic leaders aren't showing willingness to share power with House Republicans follow last week's election results.
State Rep. Greg Van Woerkom was a guest on West Michigan's Morning News.
Democrats had a 56-54 majority in the Michigan House, but two state representatives won mayoral races last Tuesday, and will have to vacate their seats soon. State Rep. Kevin Coleman won the mayor's race in Westland and Representative Lori Stone won in Warren. That will result in a 54-54 split between Republicans and Democrats for a few months.
Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer will have to call special elections to fill the two House seats that are being vacated. Meanwhile, Van Woerkom says Democrats should be operating like the power is evenly split with Republicans.
"It doesn't sound like the Democrats believe there is shared power and are going to share the gavel. It's a new dynamic. In fact, they pretty much picked up their marbles and left for the year," Van Woerkom said.
He mentioned that the Democrats pushed through some last-minute bills before going on holiday recess.
"Pretty much in the dead of the night. Very progressive energy policy. One component takes away local control of making decisions where solar farms and wind farms are going to be, and places it in the hands of the (Michigan) Public Service Commission," Van Woerkom said.
Some financial-disclosure bills for candidates were rushed to passage. He said lawmakers should have taken the time to evaluate the measures more closely in order to pass the reforms that people wanted and need.
As for the 54-54 power split, "I believe we should have some chairmanship and some gavel time," Van Woerkom said. "But we've heard that Speaker (Joe) Tate is not really interested in that. So, we may be at a standoff for more than a couple weeks, and maybe a couple months here."
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