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Special Election Set For November To Replace Courser, Gamrat

LANSING (WWJ/AP) -- Special elections have been set in the State House Districts that are now vacant as a result of the resignation of Todd Courser and expulsion of Cindy Gamrat.

Lieutenant Governor Brian Calley said Friday that primary elections in the 80th and 82nd House Districts will be held November 3. General elections in both districts will be March 8.

Candidates wanting to get on the November primary ballot have until September 18 to file the proper paperwork.

Republican Rep. Cindy Gamrat became just the fourth legislator to be kicked out in state history shortly after 4 a.m. An hour earlier, GOP Rep. Todd Courser resigned, effective immediately, when it became clear majority Republicans had secured votes from enough Democrats for his expulsion in exchange for the House asking the attorney general and state police to investigate the lawmakers.

Courser, 43, of Lapeer in Michigan's Thumb region, admitted sending an "outlandish" phony email to GOP activists and others in May claiming he was caught with a male prostitute. The email was intended to make his affair with the 42-year-old Gamrat appear less believable if it were exposed by an anonymous blackmailer who Courser said was demanding his resignation.

On Thursday, a special House committee recommended the expulsion of both legislators. But the full chamber then deadlocked for hours, as more than two dozen Democrats refused to vote.

They attacked the "sham" investigation as rushed and self-serving. They questioned why two "whistleblower" aides to Courser and Gamrat were allowed to be fired by GOP leadership, since the speaker's office had known of problems in the lawmakers' combined office.

The House was six votes short of the two-thirds supermajority needed under the state constitution. More than two dozen minority Democrats initially abstained from voting and criticized the process.

 

TM and © Copyright 2015 CBS Radio Inc. and its relevant subsidiaries. CBS RADIO and EYE Logo TM and Copyright 2015 CBS Broadcasting Inc. Used under license. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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