Throughout 2022, Democrats continued calls to open an independent House investigation into Chatfield and others. House Minority Leader Donna Lasinski (D-Scio Twp.) repeated as recently as October that Wentworth and Republicans were turning a blind eye to media reports that he improperly used money at his disposal for trips, Schedule 2 drugs and other personal items. Democrats spoke often about a change to the “culture of corruption” in Lansing.
Wentworth told the media, “As things came to light, and as circumstances changed, we did go down the path of hiring a third party to investigate, and when we did that, we notified the Attorney General, and the Attorney General's Office requested that we not investigate.”
Attorney General Dana Nessel spokesperson Amber McCann confirmed the Department did ask the House to delay initiating an investigation until the criminal investigation was complete.
Wentworth said House Republicans are going to continue to fully cooperate, but added that “I think what the House Democrats are doing is pretty sad.”
“I'm disappointed specifically at Leader Lasinski and her process and trying to politicize this situation, because at the end of the day, there are likely real victims here,” he said.
He added that the culture of corruption being portrayed by Democrats “is not true.”
“I think that there was there was one person who was in a position that potentially took advantage of that position,” he said, “and I think we're seeing the fallout from that now, but I don't think that's a culture in Lansing.”
On other matters, Wentworth said he expects the spirit of bipartisanship, along with the large number of bipartisan bills passing through the legislature, to continue in 2023 with a Democratic majority, despite criticism from Dems about a lack of Republican accountability in 2022.
When asked about what the new minority party expects come January, Wentworth said he’s confident Republican Minority Leader-elect Matt Hall (R-Comstock Township) has strong caucus support and will be able to work alongside House Speaker-elect Joe Tate (D-Detroit).
“I think Speaker Tate has got a great background of being a former Marine and a lot of experience working within his own caucus,” he said. “I’m hopeful that they can still work together and get things done.”
But Wentworth said that overall, he believes that this legislature has set a good tone with House Democrats, including a focus on staff morale across both sides of the aisle, that should result in continued good nature when it comes to office allotments and central staff allocations.
“I won't get into what the future Speaker-elect and Leader-elect have agreed upon,” he said, “but I will say I think that we've set a good tone with House Democrats.”
Wentworth said efforts this cycle have included improvements to staff pay and allotment increases across the board, “because these are people’s livelihoods.”
“I don't see Speaker Tate being someone who is unfair,” he said. “I think he's a fair person, just like I was coming in.”
But fair or not, Wentworth added that bipartisanship will be non-negotiable for the party with a “slim majority.”
“The House Democrats will need the House Republicans to move any legislation,” he said, adding that Dems lack votes when “not everybody shows up to work all the time.
“I think this cycle they've missed close to 3,000 votes as a caucus with 53 members,” he said. “If you come with 56 members, how many votes are they going to miss?”
A review of the missed votes of the House Democrats in the 2021-22 session showed a total of 2,657 missed votes based on numbers kept by Michiganvotes.org.
House Republicans will need to join in to help get something passed, Wentworth said, though he added that he believes Tate will have a good handle on the caucus overall.
