State Sen. David Jaye will have to find a new job soon if the special state Senate panel investigating his qualifications has its way.
The panel voted 5-1 on Wednesday, its seventh day of hearings, to recommend the Washington Township Republican be expelled from the Legislature.
The full Senate is expected to consider the resolution today and could vote on the measure before the day concludes. Jaye’s unprecedented removal would require a two-thirds majority - 26 of the 38 votes.
“If I don’t condemn his behavior then I condone it and I can’t condone Sen. Jaye’s actions,” said Sen. Thaddeus McCotter, the Livonia Republican who chaired the special panel.
The committee adopted a resolution that stated it found accusations that Jaye has hit his fiancée and verbally abused Senate staff members to be true.
Those accusations, combined with Jaye’s three drunken driving convictions since 1985 and the appearance of topless photos of his fiancée on his Senate-owned computer, warrant the 13-year veteran of the Legislature’s removal from office, the majority of the committee believes.
Jaye contends he has never hit his fiancée and said he has been participating in Alcoholics Anonymous since his third drunken driving conviction last June.
“I am innocent of all these charges and if I would have been any other American citizen, I would have been found innocent,” Jaye said after the committee adjourned shortly before 6 p.m. Wednesday.
Jaye attorney Philip Thomas said he spent much of Wednesday consulting Senate leadership to find alternatives to Jaye’s expulsion.
“We are making some headway,” Thomas said after meeting with Senate Majority Leader Dan DeGrow, R-Port Huron. “But there are not any specific deals on the table right now.”
Thomas said the possibility of Jaye’s resignation is still an option. He said that was not the only possible outcome, but refused to comment on specifics.
However, Jaye - echoing words he’s used throughout the hearings - said he has no intentions of presenting the Senate with his resignation.
“I am not a quitter,” he said. “For three weeks we have been the underdogs here, nothing has changed.”
Although Sen. Don Koivisto was the only committee member who voted against the resolution calling for Jaye’s recall, the Ironwood Democrat said the Senate should formally punish the embattled senator.
“There were still some questionable circumstances,” Koivisto said. “I can’t accept a slap on the wrist for a slap in the face.”
During the hearing, Koivisto vowed to ensure his fellow senators would be well-informed of both sides of the expulsion argument when they take up the issue today. “There are all kinds of things you could do short of expulsion,” he said.
Koivisto said Jaye should be censured by the Senate, which would allow Legislative privileges to be taken away from him. But McCotter said censure wasn’t enough punishment.
Jaye has never been charged with assaulting his fiancée, Sonia Kloss, who has denied being hit despite making previous calls to 911 claiming she had.
Sen. Alma Wheeler Smith, D-Salem Township, said she waited until late Tuesday night before making up her mind on the resolution - in the end, she said, her conscience got the best of her.
“We, as senators have a responsibility both to our constituents and the institution,” the panel member said. “I don’t see that Senator Jaye’s behavior shows he can handle both those responsibilities.”
Matt Treadwell can be reached at treadwe7@msu.edu.
