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COMMISSION: M.C.R.I. FRAUD WAS STRATEGIC The Michigan Civil Rights Commission charged Monday that the practices of deceiving people, particularly African-Americans, into signed the petition for the Michigan Civil Rights Initiative was a strategic move made by the group pushing the ballot proposal. Commission Chair Mark Bernstein said in turning over the commission's findings that, "We have provided a silver platter to the Attorney General and Supreme Court to conduct an even more thorough investigation. This is about conduct (of the petitioners) not content." Individuals involved in the MCRI who attended the press conference in Lansing (they were also held in Detroit and Grand Rapids) said that the commission is prejudiced against the ballot proposal, calling it a "Kangaroo Court," and that it was declaring the group guilty of fraud when the courts, Department of State and Attorney General have already declared the allegations to be untrue. But in conducting a five-month long set of hearings and analysis, the commission concluded in its 16-page report that, "Two notable and distressing truths emerge from the hundreds of pages of testimony included in the report. First, the instances of misrepresentation regarding the content of the MCRI ballot language are not isolated or random. Acts of misrepresentation occurred across the state, in multiple locations in the same communities, and over long periods of time. Second, the impact of these acts of deception is substantial. It appears that the acts documented in the report represent a highly coordinated, systematic strategy involving many circulators and, most importantly, thousands of voters." While the responsibility is there for both the person signing the petition to understand what they are signing and for the circulator to honestly tell the person what the petition involves, "A failure of the first responsibility should not permit abrogation of the second. The conduct of MCRI to avoid false and misleading statements is of paramount importance irrespective of all other events." The commission heard testimony took testimony in oral or affidavit form from hundreds of people, including several African-American people who said they were told the petition was to support affirmative action, so they signed it or helped circulate it. The commission is asking for some sort of reprieve for the aggrieved by the Attorney General or Supreme Court, including having the court reconsider the leave of appeal it filed in dealing with Michigan Civil Rights Initiative v. Board of State Canvassers. The group is also asking that the Legislature implement preventative laws so that this situation does not happen in the future. Nate Bailey with the Attorney General's Office said that they received the commission's report and are reviewing it. He did not know of any precedent for the report to bring about a revocation of the initiative from the ballot, as did Harold Core, spokesperson for the Department of Civil Rights. Officials with the MCRI have repeatedly said their petition gatherers did not use fraudulent tactics to gain signatures, and have criticized the commission as a politically biased organization. ENDORSEMENTS: A coalition of chambers of commerce in Grand Rapids, Muskegon, Holland and Grand Haven has come out opposed to the MCRI, according to One United Michigan. Meanwhile, Gregory Creswell, the Libertarian candidate for governor, has announced he is supporting the MCRI.