LANSING — He's arguably the most vocal conservative in the Michigan Senate, often rubbing colleagues the wrong way for loudly and frequently criticizing their decisions.

He's also running for governor and taking his right-wing ideas to districts — both Republican and Democrat — across the state.

And now, Sen. Patrick Colbeck, R-Canton, is even further isolated in the 38-member Senate. Late Tuesday, he was informed that the chamber's GOP leadership had removed him from the four committees on which he serves.

"This is swamp politics, and this is exactly what people are ticked off about," Colbeck said.

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He said that Senate Majority Leader Arlan Meekhof, R-West Olive, was upset that he attended a recent Right to Life fund-raiser in Holland, which is part of Meekhof's district, and didn't notify him that he was going to be in the district.

But Amber McCann, spokeswoman for Meekhof, said the decision to remove Colbeck from his committee assignments was based on multiple concerns the caucus had with Colbeck. She declined to detail specific problems, saying, "The majority leader isn't going to engage in a public debate about caucus dynamics."

Though Colbeck won't be serving on the four committees — Judiciary; Education; Veterans, Military Affairs and Homeland Security, and the Michigan State Police Subcommittee — he said he'll ramp up his vocal criticism of policies he doesn't support.

"I'll hit with both barrels on policy issues," he said. "I didn't come here to serve the Senate majority leader."

And while Democrats said they're always looking for new members for their caucus or supporters of their legislative proposals, they're not going to count on any kinship with Colbeck.

"As whip for my caucus, it's my job to use divides on the other sides to recruit new members, but we're good," said Sen. Curtis Hertel, D-East Lansing. "If he wants to support our legislation, I'm always for that. I doubt it's going to happen.

"I understand why the majority leader made his decision, and we wouldn't want those same issues in our caucus, either."

While removing members from committee assignments is rare, it has happened. Former state Sen. Virgil Smith, D-Detroit, was removed from his committees after he was charged with shooting at his ex-wife's car.

Contact Kathleen Gray: 313-223-4430, kgray99@freepress.com or on Twitter @michpoligal