By Laura Weber, Michigan Public Radio Network
LANSING, MI –
Democratic state Senator Gretchen Whitmer of East Lansing was elected by her peers to be the next Senate Minority Leader. She is the first woman chosen to be a leader in the Michigan Senate.
Whitmer says she is happy to lead her caucus, but disappointed there are not more women in the Senate.
"It's important to have representative government, and having women in government making decisions I think is enormously important," she says. "We have gone down from a historic high of 12 women, when I came over here in the special election, to now we will be at 4 women in the upcoming session. You know, I think that we're going to pay a price in terms of the quality of public policy."
There will be 12 Senate Democrats next year. They will work alongside 26 Senate Republicans - a supermajority.