By Elena Durnbaugh
Assistant Editor
Posted: April 12, 2024 5:24 PM

Just before 1 p.m. Thursday afternoon, Rep. Karen Whitsett (D-Detroit) was arriving at the Capitol to provide House Democrats with quorum and potentially their 56th vote on a few Democratic priorities outstanding in the House.

By 2:15 p.m. it was all over. The House adjourned without quorum, without a sine die resolution and without any chance to pass legislation for the remainder of the year.

In between, House Speaker Joe Tate (D-Detroit) ordered a Call of the House, despite being previously reticent to do so, even while House Democrats lost precious days of their waning majority to attendance issues following the.

Whitsett never appeared on the House floor, nor did any of the Republicans who were in the Capitol or nearby in Lansing.

So, what happened between Whitsett's arrival at the Capitol and the House's sudden and unceremonious adjournment?

The crux of the matter rests in how negotiations unraveled between Whitsett, Tate, Speaker-elect and Minority Leader Matt Hall (R-Richland), Majority Floor Leader Abraham Aiyash (D-Hamtramck), Rep. Peter Herzberg (D-Westland) and the House Democratic Caucus.

Thursday morning, Whitsett told Gongwer News Service she would come to session.

During the week, Whitsett changed her mind several times on when and whether she would be present in Lansing, saying she felt that House Democrats would force her to vote on bills she didn't support. But she told Gongwer Thursday morning, there were bills she wanted to see passed in coordination with the Senate and Sen. Sylvia Santana (D-Detroit), who also didn't attend session on Wednesday. Whitsett told Gongwer that Hall would accompany her on the floor.

Detroit School Board Member and former Rep. Sherry Gay-Dagnogo drove Whitsett to Lansing.

When Whitsett arrived at the Capitol, she was seen walking in with Annette Glenn, a former House member who works for House Republicans central staff and Whitsett's friend.

Upon entering the Capitol, Whitsett did not go to the floor. Instead, she went to Hall's office, where she was in a meeting with Hall, Aiyash and Hassan Beydoun, legal counsel for Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan's administration, according to multiple sources with knowledge of the meeting.

Following Whitsett's arrival, a Republican source speaking on background said that neither Hall nor the GOP caucus intended to step on the floor, contrary to what Whitsett had said.

Multiple sources said Aiyash was in conversations with Whitsett this week and Santana on Wednesday, trying to bring them to agree on agenda items that would get them to Lansing. One of Whitsett's priorities was the water affordability package. She changed her mind about coming into session earlier this week when she learned that House Democrats didn't have a solid 56 votes to pass the legislation. She repeatedly said she felt misled and that she didn't know who she could trust.

Herzberg was the no vote on water affordability, Aiyash said, and told Whitsett.

Herzberg, when asked Thursday morning, said he was undecided on the bills.

"I was working with the bill sponsors to try and tweak how the program would be funded, how it would be implemented on water bills and when the program would begin," he said.

Aiyash said that Herzberg never engaged in those negotiations in good faith, despite being offered multiple amendments.

Still, Thursday morning, despite knowing that water affordability was likely dead, Whitsett decided to come to the Capitol. She told Gongwer that she intended to vote on the bills she supported, and did not want to be pressured to vote on anything else.

Whitsett said she came to Lansing with the understanding that no Call of the House would be ordered to lock her in the chamber. Multiple sources said that was something Aiyash communicated to her and to Gay-Dagnogo. Additionally, although Tate was aware that Aiyash was in communication with Whitsett, he was not aware of the specifics of their conversations. He also never agreed to any proposals Aiyash put before Whitsett, including their understanding on a Call of the House Order.

For weeks, Tate signaled he had no interest in compelling members to be in the chamber through a Call of the House.

Thursday morning, House Democrats were discussing the possibility of working around Tate and issuing a Call of the House through a caucus position and a roll call vote if they failed to meet quorum again, but that idea died when Whitsett said she would attend voluntarily.

Shortly after Whitsett arrived, a Call of the House was ordered. She was not yet in the chamber.

Multiple sources said Aiyash asked Tate to give him more time to talk to Whitsett and to wait before issuing the order. Sources also said Aiyash was surprised when it happened.

Other sources stressed that Tate was unaware of what Whitsett agreed to, and Tate himself never agreed to any proposals.

Aiyash said throughout the week he communicated that a Call of the House would harm the situation with Whitsett.

"I always made it clear that a Call of the House would be counterproductive for Karen Whitsett," he said.

Multiple sources said that from the outset, the intention of the House on Thursday was to adjourn until the final sine die of the year, but members of the House Democratic Caucus wanted to try to move something out of the chamber, if possible.

Multiple sources said, however, that Tate had not signed off on any agenda Aiyash and Whitsett discussed, nor did he agree to no Call of the House.

Aiyash also told WDET Detroit Public Radio in an interview Thursday night that he had no engagement with Governor Gretchen Whitmer throughout lame duck.

Earlier this week, Whitmer told Tate and Senate Majority Leader Winnie Brinks (D-Grand Rapids) that she did not intend to sign any more bills if the Legislature couldn't deliver on road funding and economic development legislation, and those were all but dead as of last week.

House Democrats thought they could still get something done, though, Aiyash said.

"I had multiple discussions with members of the Democratic Caucus to achieve quorum to move an agenda, and at no point was I told I had no authority to do so," Aiyash said.

When the Call of the House order was issued, Whitsett was spooked away from the chamber.

The only person who returned to the chamber following the order was Herzberg, according to the House Journal, who had not been on the floor for several minutes prior to the Call of the House order.

No one else returned to the chamber after the order was given. Not Whitsett, not Hall, and not any of the 53 other House Republicans absent since Friday.

It is unclear why Tate decided to issue a Call of the House order when he did. The speaker's office declined to comment on the decision.

Tate did issue a statement on the end of the term.

"Rep. Hall, Michigan House Republicans, and Rep. Whitsett haven't show up for work as independently elected Michigan state representatives, officially since last Friday – and today they even refused to join House Democrats in the chamber to vote on critical legislation impacting Michigan residents. The bottom line is this they refuse to do their jobs and stifled the voices of their constituents who elected them to represent them."

Multiple sources on background said that Tate did not agree to not issuing the call on Thursday. Some speculated that with a quorum nearly at hand, he may have acted to get the people he needed in the room to adopt a concurrent resolution to set the sine die adjournment session.

With 55 House Democrats accounted for, and the 56th, Whitsett, sequestered in Hall's office, sources said Tate offered to lift the order to get Whitsett on the floor, but by that time, negotiations were broken down beyond repair.

"They promised me they were not going to lock me in here, and that's what they did," Whitsett said Thursday.

Rep. Graham Filler (R-Duplain Township), who has served several terms with Whitsett, said that Democrats poorly handled the negotiations.

"The Democrats aren't talking to Karen. What they're saying is you need to show up because Democrats need to run bills," Filler said. "There's no logical discussion. There's no policy discussion."

Hall also criticized the negotiations following adjournment on the House floor.

"You can't get negotiation done when you do a Call of the House, and rule 31 and you force her to sit in that desk. That's not how you get a negotiation done," he said. "What you need to do to get something done like this… is you have to bring the Senate, the House and the governor together. Then you have to figure out if Rep. Whitsett comes up and votes, can you get it through the Senate? Can you get it through the governor? Can you do that? And how do you do it? And what other pieces do you have to have to have it happen."