In Defense of Democracy: The Cindy Gamrat and Todd Courser Witch Hunt

[XLFD]

Undoubtedly, you have heard by now of the Michigan House of Representative's sex scandal between two freshman legislators.  You may have even heard that in a drawn out session held until very early this morning that Representative Cindy Gamrat was formally expelled by vote of her fellow representatives, and her lover, Representative Todd Courser resigned shortly thereafter, when his fate was soon to be sealed. 

A six-member committee, tasked with considering whether the two Republicans are fit to remain in office, approved expulsion resolutions in a series of 4-0 votes, with both Democrats passing on each measure. Read the full House report on the alleged misconduct.  This is a long report, so here is a basic summary courtesy of Mlive.

Both are married and they had an extramarital affair while sharing an office in Lansing.  There is some evidence provided by former staff members of theirs which may show that they didn't use their publicly provided resources in the best manner.  This amounts to wasting staff time (and their own) for political and personal projects; from what I hear this is rather common among those in Lansing and Washington.  It should be discouraged, but it is also a mistake that a first year legislator may make.

But should the allegations, even if all and more were true, make both democratically-elected representatives be thrown out of office by their fellow representatives whose own motives may be politically based?  Before you answer, let's look objectively at the two officials and what got them to their positions of power:

When Cindy Gamrat ran for office in 2014, winning with 63%of the vote in a three person race, she expressed her belief in certain issues which a majority of the people in her district accepted as agreeable themes:

Individual Liberty

• Excerpt: "I shall do everything in my power to protect all of our Constitutional freedoms including our freedoms of speech, religion, and the right to bear arms."

Second Amendment

• Excerpt: "All other freedoms hinge on our Second Amendment freedoms and I will stand STRONG to protect them!"

Economic Freedom

• Excerpt: "I will stand STRONG to fight for our citizens to keep more of their hard earned money and for free market solutions to reduce government red tape and obstacles to business growth and opportunities."

Freedom to Work

• Excerpt: "I will stand STRONG in support of the new Freedom to Work legislation that was recently passed in Michigan."

Religious Freedom

• Excerpt: "I will stand STRONG for religious freedom against any attacks that may come it's way."

Once Gamrat arrived at the House, she sponsored or co-sponsored over two dozen bills including a bill that would require any state group to publicly display their organizational structure,  a bill to expand the warrant process to apply to electronic communications, and others that followed her rhetoric.

When Todd Courser ran for office in 2014, winning with 55% of the vote, he expressed his belief in certain issues, which a majority of the people in his district accepted as agreeable themes: 

Education

• Excerpt: "Michigan Families need better choices and affordable options for educating their children. We need to expand school choice options, education reform that utilizes all the tools we have to the best of our abilities, to put more parents in control of their children’s education and to work to eliminate federal and state bureaucracies that hinder creativity, choice, and freedom of expression from administrators, teachers and students."

Freedom to Be Born

• Excerpt: "Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness are at the core of American values. I unequivocally believe in the right to life of unborn children. I’m 100% Pro-Life. I will not vote for any bill that authorizes or pays for abortion under any circumstance."

2nd Amendment

• Excerpt: "I believe people have the right to protect themselves from harm, including that which comes from their own government."

Ending Crony Capitalism And Creating Jobs

• Excerpt: "We need to let individuality, entrepreneurship, determination and the marketplace establish a thriving private sector and not the government."

Roads

• Excerpt: "Our infrastructure is in disarray and the potholes are out of control. In fact, according to American Society of Civil Engineers, Michigan has the 3rd worst roads in the country. We can fix them now and we can do it without raising taxes and fees."

Once he got to the House, Todd sponsored or co-sponsored about two dozen bills, including:  a bill to confirm the right of a parent to homeschool their children, a bill to expand the warrant process to apply to electronic communications, and others that followed his rhetoric.

Gamrat's Key Voting Record shows that she voted with the majority of her Republican associates on all key issues.  Courser's key voting record shows the same compliance.

Beyond the affair, and the associated issues which seem to originate from former employees with an axe to grind and their own legal issues of unlawful wiretapping, there is not a lot here that I see.  And believe me, I generally pull no punches with public officials (even those I agree with) who behave badly-- I offer seven years of Ludington Torch articles in my own defense.

Extramarital affairs are bad, using a meeting of staff members to discuss issues not pertaining to state affairs is bad, and trying to cover-up your sins can be bad.  But...

Cindy Gamrat was elected by 63% of the vote in a three person race, and is being expelled from her office by her fellow elected officials, led by those who vote the same way as she.  Many who have probably erred far greater in their own discretions over the years, even if they have never had an extramarital affair with a fellow representative. 

Here, there has only been a politically-based investigation, followed by a political exercise in sweeping the tawdry affair out of the public eye by getting rid of the players.  This sets a very dangerous precedent.  Do you want the representatives you and your community voted for to be fired by other people outside of your community with a sham of due process given them and a minimum of investigation into their alleged improprieties? 

Our State Constitution allows the recall process to be initiated by the people whenever they feel the person they voted for has served poorly.  In such a process, the elected official can make their case to the people, and the truth generally filters out whether it's good or bad. 

With today's result, lawmakers can undo the results of an election without any great cause.  Mark my words, that is a dangerous precedent that will only be expanded.

[Willy]

The voters should have been the deciding factor as to whether Gamrat and Courser should have remained as their representatives. What surprised me was that the Republicans were the driving force behind their expulsion and with a little thought the reason for that becomes clear. Republicans did not want any scandals or distraction to get in the way of the 2016 elections so the prudent course of action would be to eliminate Courser and Gamrat ASAP so that their transgressions would not reflect on the Republican who are running for offices. Voters are more aware of what politicians are up to when elections appear on the horizon.

[XLFD]

I believe you have nailed the primary reason for why the House Republicans went after these two, hoping to get rid of all traces of the scandal before the State's 2016 election cycle kicks in. 

An almost equally important secondary consideration is that the two Republicans identified themselves as Tea Party" Republicans, which our purple Republican mainstream of Michigan generally decry.  The majority of our State's Republicans showed their true colors in the Sales Tax Proposal the citizen's roundly defeated, and by some of the rights they have taken away with legislation over the last few years.  These mainstream Republicans find TP Republicans as gauche, and believe that the two districts may now elect another mainstream Republican in their image and flawed ideals.

[Jasper]

The thing of it is...this has nothing whatsoever to do with their "little affair," but rather their actions were done on the taxpayers dime.

[XLFD]

I've skimmed through much of the House committee report plus other news sources and haven't found either of the adulterous pair abusing the money of the taxpayer egregiously, particularly Cindy Gamrat.  If anyone could explain to me (with documentation) what she did that justified her expulsion on such grounds, I would love to be educated on it. 

[Jasper]

Well, Todd with all his fabricated stories via texts used his "office" to fabricate his affair with Cindy.  Todd requested a staff member to assist him with these fabrications.  The staff member refused and was ultimately terminated.  

To cut right to the chase, "per say," Todd claimed he was having an affair with a male prostitute to circumvent his affair with Cindy. 

All of this BS was done on the taxpayer's dime!  

But, the both of them are despicable, as they both represented family values...you know "Tea Party" ideologies.

[XLFD]

You still haven't brought up anything about her beyond the fact she was caught in an affair and had a "Tea Party" label, which can get her upbraided by mainstream Republicans and Democrats, intent on growing your taxes and your government's power.  Those who further the ideals of the Tea Party movement are doing the people's work of restraining the government and spending tax money sensibly, IMHO.  I see little that this duo did in their half year in office that furthered the Tea Party agenda, however, other than what a standard Republican would do.

Now, if you claim Todd Courser should be fired for sending the E-mail that you mentioned, then why didn't Democrat Tom Stobie, who used his public school-supplied E-mail regularly and flagrantly for his election campaign and fundraising, get expelled from his school for doing so back in 2014 when he ran against Ray Franz?  It became an election issue, but the local school board was fine with it. 

The realists in our state legislature wanted to get rid of these guys prior to any investigation by the MSP because, and mark my words, the MSP will not turn up anything that is criminal in nature, and minor lesser issues that you can believe that the majority of state legislators have been guilty of at one time or another.  The weakness of the committee report's findings illustrate that.

[snide]

Only problem I have with these two is that I think this (& we can use it here in Ludville as well)... If you are an elected official you should hold yourself to a higher standard....period.....& too many of them DONT hold themselves to it

[XLFD]

Too true, and I agree, with the stipulation of whether it needs to be a part of the public's business in the first place, which the Courser-Gamrat affair seems to have crossed at least a little bit. 

There is currently an underlying 'sex scandal' in Ludington that I have heard consistent rumor of, but if it's true, you can't really hold one of the city officers at fault for their part in it, since they were more of a victim.  Probably some karma coming around for them.

[XLFD]

In elections held yesterday on both sides of the middle of the state, Gamrat and Courser lost their bids for re-election to their old seats. 

In related news, Snyder and Michigan Republican leaders announced the raising of gas taxes and registration fee increase as part of a plan to fix the roads in legislation that has passed both houses.  Critics in the party and those across the aisle, stated it was a bad plan because it delays the necessary road spending, includes too many tax cuts and shifts too much spending to the roads. 

It's a bad plan because the taxpayers have already declared that they have enough of our money already in May, but our so-called Republican leaders are nothing but tax and spend liberals.  At least Gamrat and Courser would have been voting against such a measure, that is, if they were in attendance and not getting busy with each other.

[Willy]

I wonder who contributed to Gamrat and Courser's campaign. To me it was a losing proposition and I can't see why anyone would have contributed to their reelection folly.

The real question is what are they doing with the billions received from existing gas taxes, fees and federal dollars? There should be no need to raise taxes for the roads. Another thing most people are not aware of is that these new taxes and fees will only be used for State roads. All others roads will require  more local spending.