LANSING, Mich. (AP) — Two Michigan lawmakers who were forced from office over an extramarital affair and a convoluted cover-up scheme were well behind Tuesday in crowded primary fields to win back their seats.
Tea party leaders Todd Courser and Cindy Gamrat sought the Republican nominations in special primary elections, which came less than two months after their Sept. 11 ouster.
With 60 percent of precincts reporting, Gamrat had 10 percent of the vote — trailing Mary Whiteford and Jim Storey, who had 49 percent and 26 percent of votes counted. Courser had less than 4 percent of the vote, far behind leader Gary Howell’s 30 percent.
Courser resigned in September while facing expulsion; Gamrat was expelled.
Eleven Republicans ran in Courser’s old district in Michigan’s Thumb region and eight vied for Gamrat’s former seat in the southwestern part of the state.
Political action committees for business groups and legislative leaders threw their financial support behind the candidates who finished second to Courser and Gamrat in the 2014 primaries — nurse Jan Peabody and Whiteford — along with Howell. Another candidate who raised money was Storey.
An education policy group with ties to one of the state’s Republican mega-donors has mailed advertisements attacking Courser and Gamrat for misusing public resources to cover up the affair.
The winners in the conservative districts will be favored in special general elections in March.
In May, Courser sent a sexually explicit phony email to GOP activists and reporters that said he had been caught having sex with a male prostitute behind a Lansing nightclub. The self-smear email called Courser a “bi-sexual porn addicted sex deviant” and “gun toting Bible thumping … freak” and Gamrat a “tramp.”
Courser explained that he thought his tale would make the affair less plausible in case it was revealed by an anonymous extortionist who sent him and Gamrat text messages demanding that he resign.
After the scandal broke in August, the freshmen legislators asked to be censured. But the Republican-led House pursued expulsion.
An apologetic Gamrat admitted to official misconduct and misuse of state resources but said she did not know the email’s content. Courser, who also apologized for the relationship, said he sent the email out of desperation. He accused former aides to him and Gamrat of conspiring with a blackmailer and GOP leadership in a “political hit” against him.
The staffers, including one who refused to send the email at Courser’s request, have filed a whistleblower and libel/slander lawsuit against Courser and Gamrat.
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