Lansing — A Republican-affiliated group led by a Michigan GOP state canvasser is helping to fund a lawsuit brought by Black Democrats challenging the legislative maps redrawn in 2021 by the Michigan Independent Citizens Redistricting Commission.
The Michigan Voting Rights Foundation, which filed its incorporation papers with the state in February 2022, has assisted with the costs associated with litigation filed in March 2022 by several Black Detroiters who are seeking a court order requiring the maps to be redrawn, said Tony Daunt, a Republican member of the Michigan Board of State Canvassers who is listed as president of the foundation.
The foundation’s involvement in the litigation and the past involvement in redistricting matters by nonprofits FAIR Maps and Michigan Freedom Fund — both of which also were led by Daunt — drew the ire of the redistricting commission’s executive director, Edward Woods.
Woods argued the groups, which have criticized the formation and work of the redistricting commission, were an “ongoing threat to democracy.”
“They’re an ongoing threat to dismantle what voters wanted,” Woods said. “And that’s what we’re seeing over and over and over again.”
But other commissioners pushed back on Woods’ claim, arguing they respected the efforts of Detroit residents to challenge the maps, regardless of who was funding the case.
Sherry Gay-Dagnogo, a former Detroit lawmaker challenging the new maps, said the plaintiffs in the federal lawsuit began working with members of the foundation in early 2022 after a prior state lawsuit challenging the maps was rejected by the Michigan Supreme Court. She said the Black Democratic plaintiffs and the Republican-affiliated Michigan Voting Rights Foundation saw “common ground” in challenging the maps.
She rejected Woods’ characterization of the group and said his time would be better spent focusing on the merits of the case.
“It’s very disheartening that they’ve taken a position in finger pointing at an organization versus doing some self-inventory,” Gay-Dagnogo said.
“They should be trying to get it right, if that’s what the formation of the commission was all about. Or are they just trying to defend and maintain a Democratic majority at the expense of Black people?”
Woods’ criticism of the Michigan Voting Rights Foundation’s involvement came after the conclusion of a six-day trial earlier this month in which Black Detroiters argued the new maps diluted their vote in violation of the Equal Rights Act and the 14th Amendment’s equal protections clause.
The commission maintained in court that it drew Detroit area districts up and into majority White suburbs in order to keep together communities of interest and achieve a more politically-balanced map statewide — two of the criteria it had to comply with under Michigan’s Constitution.
Federal judges Paul Maloney, Janet Neff and Raymond Kethledge are expected to rule on the case in the coming months.
Woods on Monday emphasized he was not criticizing the litigation brought against the commission; instead, he said, his comments were directed at the group funding the lawsuit, the Michigan Voting Rights Foundation.
“Now we see that they’re doing anything and everything they can to stop the voices, silence the voices, of Michiganders by their ongoing litigation support and preventing the commission from doing its job,” Woods said. “…We want the press to be aware of this ongoing threat. We want the public to be aware of this ongoing threat.”
Daunt, who sat through most of the Kalamazoo trial in early November, declined to disclose the donors contributing to the Michigan Voting Rights Foundation and, by extension, the litigation challenging Michigan’s House and Senate maps. The foundation has not yet had to submit a 990.
Daunt rejected Woods’ allegations that the group is a “threat to democracy,” noting he himself had been an outspoken critic of false election fraud claims after the 2020 presidential election. Woods’ allegations, Daunt said, are “tired” and “baseless” mischaracterizations that “cheapen actual threats to democracy” and seek to malign groups that disagree with the commission’s maps.
“The MICRC (Michigan Independent Citizens Redistricting Commission) failed — miserably — to protect the interests of African American voters in Detroit, even after these voters expressed their concerns passionately and clearly when the maps were being drafted and accurately predicted what would happen if they were adopted,” Daunt said.
“When it became clear that state and national Democrats had no interest in standing up for the VRA and 14th Amendment rights of these voters, the MVRF happily stepped up to make sure the MICRC was called to account for their egregious violations,” Daunt added.
In its incorporation papers filed with the state, the Michigan Voting Rights Foundation lists elections attorney Eric Doster as its resident agent and former Michigan Republican Party Chairwoman Susan Avery as its vice president.
FAIR Maps, a separate nonprofit Daunt leads, participated in the public input aspects of the map-drawing process in 2021 and criticized the commission in news releases for map drawing delays, votes on pay raises for commissioners and an October 2021 decision to enter closed session for business that the Michigan Supreme Court later mandated be made public. FAIR Maps’ officers and directors are listed in state records as Avery, former Michigan Republican Party Chairman Bobby Schostak and former Michigan Republican Party Chairman David Doyle.
The Michigan Freedom Fund, which Daunt led prior to being appointed a canvasser in 2021, is a conservative policy group backed by West Michigan’s DeVos family. The group was instrumental in leading unsuccessful efforts in 2018 to block in court and at the ballot box a proposal creating the independent citizens redistricting commission.
Commissioner Rhonda Lange, a Republican member of the redistricting commission, also pushed back on Woods’ comments on the funding source for the litigation.
“I actually find them very inappropriate and to call out three groups makes it look completely political,” Lange said. “I am not happy about it and I know they say the commission speaks with one voice, but that is not my belief nor my voice that he is expressing.”
Commissioner Erin Wagner, also a Republican member of the commission, voiced similar frustration with Woods’ comments.
“I do not see the organizations that funded the Agee litigation as a ‘threat to democracy,’” Wagner said. “The litigation was brought by the citizens of Detroit, not the organizations that funded it. I believe that all of us have a right to free speech and this litigation is merely a component of that.”
eleblanc@detroitnews.com