LANSING, MI – The organization which spurred voters to create Michigan’s new redistricting commission said Republicans challenging the panel in court aren’t making their true intentions clear.

Voters Not Politicians filed a series of briefs Thursday asking a federal judge to throw out a legal challenges posed by the Michigan Republican Party and a group of 15 Republican activists. At the heart of the case is how a new panel charged with drawing the state’s political districts will be filled, but VNP argued Republicans are only seeking to end the commission.

“This lawsuit is a desperate attempt by those who benefited the most from gerrymandering Michigan’s maps to sabotage the Independent Citizens Redistricting Commission that voters put in place,” said Nancy Wang, executive director of VNP.

Tony Daunt, executive director of the Michigan Freedom Fund and a lead plaintiff on the lawsuit, told MLive he’s been skeptical of VNP’s intentions too.

“We were concerned about it from a political gamesmanship standpoint,” Daunt said of the 2018 ballot proposal. “We didn’t believe, and still don’t believe, the people behind this have independent, nonpartisan good government intentions. When you look at these commissions and their genesis throughout other states, it’s almost always from the left.”

The case is being heard by Judge Janet Neff with the U.S. District Court in Grand Rapids. Neff recently consolidated two lawsuits brought separately by the two GOP groups against Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson, a Democrat, earlier this year.

The lawsuit challenges changes to the Michigan Constitution approved by 61% of voters through a 2018 ballot proposal.

The plaintiffs argue criteria determining who can serve on the redistricting commission violates their First Amendment and 14th Amendment rights, and therefore the entire commission should be declared invalid.

They also argue the panel’s selection criteria, which bars politicians, lobbyists and their families from serving, unconstitutionally punishes people for engaging in the political process and prevents the Michigan Republican Party from having adequate representation.

“I’m active in politics," Daunt said. “My mom is forbidden (to serve on the panel) by virtue of that, and the most political thing she’s done is give birth to me, basically. That’s such a such an affront to our civil liberties and our constitutional rights that I think this entire thing should be tossed and started over."

VNP argued in legal documents filed Thursday that the claims don’t make much sense, saying it would be easy to address the selection criteria without scrapping the entire commission.

VNP argued the Republicans’ "claims are, in reality, an assertion of a generalized grievance shared by all who opposed the approval of Proposal 18-2.”

The commission selection criteria was meant to maintain the integrity of the electoral system, ensure district lines that will foster competition, reduce the protection of incumbents and encourage new candidates.

Still, VNP said Republicans have plenty of opportunity to participate in the commission’s business through public meetings.

“The only thing that any of these plaintiffs will be prevented from doing is to sit as a member of the commission with authority to cast a controlling vote for or against adoption of a redistricting plan,” VNP argued in court documents.

Attorney General Dana Nessel, a Democrat representing the state in the lawsuit, asked the court to dismiss both complaints before they were consolidated. VNP also asked the court to throw out the lawsuit and deny a request to hold off on implementing the commission.

Applications to be on the commission will be mailed to 10,000 people randomly by Jan. 1, 2020, according to the Secretary of State. An online application will launch sometime in late October or early November.

Meanwhile, Republican lawmakers have moved to legislatively wrest control of the redistricting commission by making its funding go through the legislature instead of the Secretary of State, as the ballot proposal intended. That move has yet to be finalized, and would need a signature from Gov. Gretchen Whitmer to become law.

Earlier this year, a panel of three U.S. District Court judges determined the current maps, drawn in 2011, are a political gerrymander of “historic proportions" meant to benefit Republicans.

Daunt said the maps aren’t unfair.

“Unfortunately, the Democrats and the liberals and the people who have pushed this commission on Michigan simply haven’t liked the results of the last 10 years or last several cycles, and so they wanted to come up with a way to gain the system in their favor,” he said.