Redistricting commission votes down effort to start meetings with Pledge of Allegiance
Apr. 10—Michigan's Independent Citizens Redistricting Commission voted down a measure calling for the panel to begin meetings with the Pledge of Allegiance, with those against the recital arguing it would cause too much division.
The commission tasked with redrawing Michigan's voting boundaries has been meeting for about seven months without saying the pledge at the beginning of meetings but took a vote Thursday after a commissioner recommended they begin reciting the pledge at the start of sessions.
The 13-member commission voted the suggestion down 7-5, with one member not voting. Those in favor included three Republican members and two nonaffiliated members.
The board is made up for four Republicans, four Democrats and five nonpartisan members who were chosen from among thousands of applicants and who are tasked with drawing new boundaries for state Senate, state House and U.S. House districts.
The commission's deliberation over the pledge was reflective of its commitment to "integrity, respect, transparency and being purposeful," commission spokesman Edward Woods said.
"The MICRC remains steadfast to lead Michigan's redistricting process to assure Michigan's congressional, state Senate and state House district line are drawn fairly in a citizen-led, transparent process, meeting constitutional mandates," Woods said.
Commissioner Rebecca Szetela, a nonaffiliated member of the group, said she didn't see the pledge as necessary to advance the group's work and thought it could be "unnecessarily divisive" at future meetings.
"We're not a federal board," she said. "We're not a federal agency. We're an independent commission of Michigan, not of the federal government, so why would we be pledging allegiance to the federal government? Just seems a little odd to me."
Commission member Dustin Witjes, a Democrat, said he vehemently disagreed with the proposal and said he would turn his camera off during the pledge if the group decided to say it at the beginning of meetings.
"We haven't done it; we don't need to do it," said Witjes, who noted his dual citizenship in the Netherlands and the U.S. were in part driving his opposition.
Doug Clark, the Republican commission member who suggested the pledge, said he felt it was the board's patriotic duty to begin meetings by reciting it.
"We're part of this nation," Clark said. "And I believe that's the right thing to do. It doesn't take that much time."
Rhonda Lange, a Republican member who served in the military, argued members were pledging allegiance to fellow Americans, not the government.
"We're all Americans," she said. "I don't know of any words in it that are racist that are not opening arms to everybody."
Brittni Kellom, the commission's Democratic chairwoman, said she would not feel comfortable "leading something that is that contentious."
"I would hate for anyone to view us as discriminatory," she said. "... I don't feel like that's my American duty, to say that. I think that I can be an American and a great African American and a great person without saying those words. And I think the connotation is just too heavy and too risky to make that an obligation"
