Prop 2 proponent named to civil rights panel

Appointment of Drolet, a Macomb County commissioner, called obscene by black caucus.

Gordon Trowbridge / Detroit News Washington Bureau

A leader of last year's winning ballot campaign to ban government affirmative action programs in Michigan has been named chairman of a state panel advising federal civil rights officials.

Leon Drolet, a Republican Macomb County commissioner and a former state lawmaker, said Monday that he hoped to use his position on Michigan's state advisory committee to the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights to strengthen enforcement of Proposal 2. Drolet was chairman of the Michigan Civil Rights Initiative, which pushed the measure.

Traditional civil rights organizations criticized the appointment.

"This is obscene to no end," said Greg Murray of the Macomb Democratic Black Caucus. "He has neither done anything civil or right for the disenfranchised people of color."

A statement issued Monday by the Michigan Department of Civil Rights said: "By selecting a candidate with a one-issue civil rights platform at odds with every established civil rights organization, the U.S. Commission has all but erased its credibility as a proponent for civil rights."

Shanta Driver, co-chairwoman of a group seeking to overturn Prop 2, compared the appointment to putting Alabama segregationist George Wallace "in charge of desegregation."

Kenneth Marcus, staff director for the civil rights commission, said state advisory panels monitor civil rights developments in their states. Eleven members of the Michigan panel were chosen June 1, including an aide to U.S. Rep. John Conyers of Detroit and director of a prominent Arab-American rights group.

Kary Moss, state director of the American Civil Liberties Union, was among those Marcus named as new members, but she told The News on Monday she would not serve -- because of bureaucratic confusion over selections and disagreement with Bush administration policies.

Drolet said he hoped to work well with members with different philosophies. "I hope this appointment means a growing awareness of how we see civil rights," he said. "We've got to get away from lumping people into groups."

You can reach Gordon Trowbridge at (202) 662-8738 or gtrowbridge@dtenews.com.