Embattled Michigan Lawmaker Cindy Gamrat Says She Won't Quit Over Affair
EAST LANSING (AP/WWJ) - An embattled but apologetic Michigan lawmaker who had an extramarital affair with another legislator said Friday she will not resign from office.
Republican Rep. Cindy Gamrat of Plainwell, north of Kalamazoo, tearfully announced her decision a week after the bizarre scandal broke.
"For now I believe that the best path is for me to move forward and I intend to continue to represent my district to the best of my ability," she said, at a news conference.
Gamrat and Republican Rep. Todd Courser of Lapeer are subjects of a House investigation into whether they misused public resources to hide their relationship and fired an aide who had refused to help.
The 42-year-old Gamrat, a social conservative and tea party activist, took office in January.
With her husband beside her, she admitted to making mistakes, but said she believes an open and honest investigation will vindicate her.
"I know that I have made some poor decisions as they relate," she said, through tears, "that do not line up with who I am or what I believe. I know that over the weeks and months to come I will have some hard decisions to make."
Courser, 43, a fellow freshman representative who like Gamrat bases legislation on Christian beliefs, said this week he orchestrated a false, sexually explicit email to Republicans and reporters in May claiming he was caught having sex with a male prostitute to deflect attention from the affair.
He apologized in an audio statement but said he would not resign, saying he devised the email under intense pressure after a "blackmailer" sent anonymous text messages demanding that he resign or the relationship would be exposed.
In an unusual arrangement, Courser and Gamrat combined operations and shared three staffers despite having districts on opposite sides of the state.
One of the aides, Ben Graham, refused to send the fictional email after Courser told him to take a sick day to do it, according to secret recordings and text messages he gave The Detroit News. Graham and another staffer, Keith Allard, received healthy pay raises in June but were fired in early July. The third aide, Josh Cline, quit in April.
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