Michigan State Representative Todd Courser, who circulated bizarre gay sex scandal rumors about himself to cover up the affair he was having with fellow representative Cindy Gamrat, resigned from his state House seat late last night. At the same time, Gamrat was expelled in a 91-12 vote.
The affair between Courser and Gamrat, both Tea Party Constitutional conservative ‘Merica Republicans who shared an office, came to light when the Detroit News obtained audio recordings where Courser outlined his plan to invent a fake gay sex scandal about himself. When that didn’t work, he blamed the very real-sounding “Lansing Mafia” for his downfall, saying they were trying to “blackmail” him.
Gamrat, meanwhile, held a press conference where she apologized, flanked by her husband and two random veterans who just decided to come along. She had asked her colleagues to censure her but not fire her. Instead, in a 14-hour day of voting Thursday, stretching into the wee hours of Friday morning, Republicans tried hard to get the two expelled, while Democrats initially refused to vote on the matter, saying they didn’t know enough about when and how the House’s leadership learned about the affair. From the Detroit Free Press:
Twenty-six Democrats initially refused to vote on a resolution to expel Courser, leaving the expulsion vote six votes shy of the 73 votes needed to remove the lawmaker from office.
After a 67-14 vote, with 26 Democrats refusing to vote and two Democrats absent, Republicans called for a reconsideration of the vote and the board stayed open until it was cleared shortly before midnight, so the House could adjourn for the day and reconvene a minute later.
“It’s sort of Shakespearian, if you look at it: My fate rests in the hands of the Democrats,” Courser said late Thursday.
Courser’s fondness for lengthy and melodramatic Facebook updates continued unabated; around 12:40 a.m., he essentially claimed he was being held prisoner in the state House:
Well the republican leadership barred the doors and forbid our leaving the building today and they have kept us in the Capitol since about 1pm. They closed the session out at midnight; now it’s past midnight and we are starting a new day, with a new invocation and a new pledge. It looks like we will now vote a third time to expel me. The leadership intends to keep us here until they get the votes they need to expel me. I want to thank all of you for your prayers on all of this; and if you are still praying tonight I can’t thank you enough.
Courser ultimately elected to cut his own misery short by tendering his resignation. The House was able to vote nearly unanimously to expel Gamrat by adding an amendment stipulating that the Michigan State Police will investigate the scandal.
According to the Free Press, Gamrat told reporters she thought she’d worked out a “deal” to not get fired: “I had a clear understanding that if I were to plead guilty to everything that there would be a censure. I didn’t want to sign the statement, but I was told that it would be ugly if I didn’t.”
Courser hasn’t mentioned his supposed Mafia blackmailers in a few days; around 9 a.m. Thursday, before his embarrassing day began, he finally issued an apology via Facebook:
I would appreciate your prayers all day today, just that God’s Hand would move in all of this to His end for His Honor and Glory...God bless all of you who have prayed your many prayers and supplications on my behalf, I am sorry for all of the stress and disappointment I have caused everyone. Thank you.
