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Special Election Planned To Fill Vacant Congressional Seat

LANSING (WWJ) - Michigan Governor Rick Snyder has decided on a course of action following last week's abrupt resignation of Congressman Thaddeus McCotter.

Reporting from Lansing, WWJ's Tim Skubick said there will be a special election.

"There will be a primary election, a special election, in September, in which the Republicans and Democrats will each pick one candidate. They they, in turn, will run in November to fill out this term which goes until the end of the year," Skubick explained.

Skubick said this is a bit of an ironic twist since McCotter ran as a fiscal conservative.

"Had Mr. McCotter made this decision a couple of weeks ago, had he done that, they would have been able to piggyback this election on the one that's scheduled for August," he said. "There would have been no additional cost to the taxpayers."

"But because he decided so late in the process, he's running up the tab for the taxpayers to the tune of $650,000," Skubick said.

The resignation came in the wake of an investigation of McCotter and his campaign workers by the state Attorney General for possible fraud after the Secretary of State determined he submitted duplicate signatures to have his name put on the August Primary ballot.

In early June, McCotter ended his bid as a write-in candidate and said his sole purpose would be to finish his term and aid in the Attorney General probe, but it appears that remaining in office was not possible for McCotter. (More on this here).

A special meeting to discuss additional details of special election was being held Tuesday afternoon. Stay with WWJ Newsradio 950 and CBSDetroit.com for the latest.

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