The office of Michigan’s Attorney General Dana Nessel declined Monroe County’s request for quo warranto, a legal action used to determine who has the lawful right to hold a public office, in its case against Mark Brant.
Brant has argued he is the county’s District 2 commissioner despite a special election in November when Dale Biniecki was the vote winner. The county requested the special election stating Brant wasn’t a qualified voter when his term began on Jan. 1, 2025. Judge Carol Kuhnke, who presided over the case, allowed the election to go forward.
According to the AG’s press secretary, Danny Wimmer, this was because the county was “already engaged in litigation on the question.” In a letter to Phil Goldsmith, the county’s attorney, dated April 30, the attorney general’s office clarified that the decision to decline the request “should not be viewed as any type of comment on the substance or merit of the underlying claims.”
According to Goldsmith, the next step is for all parties, the county, Brant, and Biniecki, to amend their original complaints to include a quo warranto request. Then, they will go back before Kuhnke for oral arguments.
Kuhnke’s last ruling was that Brant and Biniecki were barred from the seat until a court of appeals ruling. However, the court of appeals ruled that it couldn’t make a decision on who got the District 2 seat because the case hadn’t gone through the proper legal channel of a quo warranto.
“The sooner (we have a solution) the better,” said David Vensel, the board of commissioner’s chairman. “It’s been a long time without representation for District 2.”
Brant said he believed that the language in the letter supports his claim. He said that it states the only way to remove him from office is if the law were changed.
“I was pleased to see that the Attorney General’s Office acknowledged that there is no authority under current law to remove a duly elected County Commissioner from his office,” he said. “That is the same conclusion that circuit court Judge Kuhnke arrived at in her initial ruling on the subject.”
Goldsmith said that he believes the letter makes it clear that the attorney general didn’t make a comment on the substance or merit of any underlying claims. He agrees that the state legislature could clear up the issues at hand, but he holds that the county’s position, that Brant wasn’t a qualified voter when he assumed office since he was incarcerated, is an issue that still has to be decided by the court.
— Contact reporter Connor Veenstra at CVeenstra@gannett.com.
This article originally appeared on The Monroe News: Michigan AG declines to intervene in Monroe County seat fight
Reporting by Connor Veenstra, The Monroe News / The Monroe News
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