A Tale of Two Vacancies: The Saginaw City Council Shows Whitmer How It’s Done

Lansing, Mich. – On August 27, former Councilwoman Monique Lamar-Silvia of Saginaw was convicted of three election fraud-related felonies. On August 28, the Saginaw City Council announced plans to select her replacement and fill the vacancy by next month.

By contrast, it has now been more than 230 days since then-Senator Kristen McDonald-Rivet resigned her seat in the 35th State Senate District, and Governor Gretchen Whitmer has still not called a special election. While Whitmer recruits candidates to run to represent their communities, 270,000 residents of the Great Lakes Bay Region have no one representing their community in the Michigan Senate while critical decisions on schools, taxes, and jobs continue.

The difference is striking. When faced with a vacancy, local leaders in Saginaw acted immediately to restore the voters’ representation. Governor Whitmer, on the other hand, has still done nothing, leaving the entire 35th District without a voice in Lansing for nearly eight months.

“This is a tale of two vacancies: local leaders in Saginaw are showing their constituents what accountability looks like, while Governor Whitmer is showing us just the opposite,” said Mary Drabik, a spokesperson for Michigan Forward Network. “Families across the Great Lakes Bay Region deserve the same urgency and respect as local voters in Saginaw, not empty promises and failures to deliver.”

While refusing to give a voice to residents in the Great Lakes Bay Region, Governor Whitmer was quick to fill three judicial vacancies this week in Detroit’s 36th District Court.