A defiant Michigan lawmaker who was expelled from office for her role in covering up an extramarital affair with another legislator filed Thursday to run for her old House seat, less than a week after her colleagues kicked her out. Cindy Gamrat, who unsuccessfully sought a censure instead of expulsion, was among five Republicans who submitted paperwork a day before the deadline for a special primary election in the district left vacant when she was expelled on a 91-12 vote and immediately escorted out of the House chamber after 4 a.m. on Sept. 11. The primary will be held Nov. 3, with a special general election to follow on March 8 in the GOP-heavy districts. “All along I’ve maintained that I felt like the voters should decide. I’m going to continue to fight for them to have a voice in this,” Gamrat, a 42-year-old tea party leader from Plainwell, north of Kalamazoo, told The Associated Press in a phone interview.
Fellow tea party Republican Todd Courser of Lapeer in the Thumb region resigned an hour before Gamrat’s expulsion rather than be expelled himself. He said Wednesday he had not decided whether to run.
Courser sent a false, sexually explicit email to GOP activists and others in May claiming he had been caught with a male prostitute. The email was intended to make his affair with Gamrat less believable if it was exposed by what Courser said was an anonymous blackmailer demanding his resignation.
Full Article: Expelled Michigan lawmaker files to run in special election – Washington Times.
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