This article originally appeared in The Detroit News November 4, 2025.
Gov. Gretchen Whitmer is running out of time to keep a campaign promise. During her first gubernatorial run, she pledged to open the governor’s office to the state Freedom of Information Act.
Nov. 4 marked day 2,500 of the Whitmer administration. The governor has yet to keep her promise.
Here’s what Whitmer wrote in 2018: “If the legislature won’t act, I will use the governor’s authority under the Michigan State Constitution to extend FOIA to the Lieutenant Governor and Governor’s Offices.”
This was a significant pledge because Michigan is the only state in the country whose open records law expressly excuses the governor from following the law.
The Michigan Legislature enacted our public records law in 1976. The law had a simple and compelling purpose: “The people shall be informed so that they may fully participate in the democratic process.”
Even so, the Legislature explicitly exempted the offices of the governor and lieutenant governor when it passed the Freedom of Information Act. The statute also omitted “legislator” from the list of public bodies or employees whom the law applied to. Attorney General Frank Kelly later confirmed in a 1986 legal opinion that lawmakers are excluded from FOIA.
Why would people want records from the governor’s office? Well, consider the decisions each governor makes, whether it’s Whitmer’s decision to lock down the state during the COVID-19 pandemic or Gov. Rick Snyder’s decisions leading to the Detroit bankruptcy proceedings. People deserve to know how the governor arrives at decisions, but all these deliberations are shielded from public scrutiny under the current law.
When the Flint water crisis developed 10 years ago, many people asked questions about what Snyder and his administration knew, and when they knew it. To Snyder’s credit, his office voluntarily released thousands of related records. But he didn’t have to do it, and neither would future governors.
Lawmakers have tried and failed to apply the law to the governor and themselves. The House passed reforms in 2017, 2019 and 2021, while the Senate did so in 2024 and 2025. Each time, the bills passed with strong bipartisan support. And each time, the bills left one chamber only to stall in the other.
All of this made Whitmer’s campaign pledge remarkable. She promised to open her office, even if the Legislature failed to act. The Legislature has indeed failed to act. But so has she.
And now we are 2,500 days into her administration.
That’s a long time — nearly seven years. The United States’ involvement in World War I and II combined didn’t last that long.
A college student can complete his or her undergraduate and master’s degrees in that amount of time.
The TV shows “Breaking Bad” and “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” each ran for fewer than 2,500 days.
Max Scherzer pitched for the Detroit Tigers for five seasons. And defensive tackle Ndamukong Suh was with the Detroit Lions for five years.
The Mackinac Bridge was constructed in about three and a half years.
The first five towers of the Renaissance Center were built in about four years.
The Michigan House has shown that individual branches of government can unilaterally embrace transparency. Speaker Matt Hall, R-Richland Township, required House members to fill out an application when proposing earmarks, which the House posts on the Legislatively Directed Spending Items webpage.
In contrast, Whitmer has pivoted to call for transparency reforms that apply to the governor and lawmakers alike. “We’re all going to play by the same rules,” she said in 2022.
There’s no sign that the governor plans to keep her pledge, and that’s too bad.
