LANSING, MI (WTVB) – The Michigan Senate is blocking the Governor Gretchen Whitmer’s appointment of biology professor and conservationist Anna Mitterling to the state’s Natural Resources Commission.
Thursday’s vote was the first such blockage since former Governor Jennifer Granholm’s administration, and came after Whitmer appointed former Grand Rapids Mayor George Heartwell to the commission last week.
Whitmer’s office called the move “sexist, partisan games,” alleging that the Senate rejected the appointment of a qualified woman because Whitmer refused to stop the Heartwell appointment.
Senate Majority Leader Mike Shirkey did not say if the decision was linked to Heartwell’s appointment, but argued the vote was not sexist.
(reporting by Molly Domenick-TTWN Media Networks Inc.)
