Tearful Mich. lawmaker says she won't quit after affair, bizarre cover-up
EAST LANSING, Mich. -- 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.
"I am sincerely sorry that I have disappointed so many by my actions," Gamrat said during a news conference at an East Lansing law firm. Her husband stood at her side.
Gamrat said she made "poor decisions" in her personal life but did nothing wrong in her role as a lawmaker.
"I believe an open and honest investigation will vindicate me," she said.
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.
"For now I believe the best path is for me to move forward," Gamrat said, according to CBS affiliate WLNS.
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.
On Thursday, Courser released text messages on his Facebook page that he says his brother received from the alleged blackmailer.
Gamrat said she did not write or assist in sending the email and did not know it had been sent until a reporter notified her of it.
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.
Gamrat said she shared staff with Courser to "eliminate redundancy and save taxpayer dollars." Allard, she said, got a salary increase to compensate him for increased workload because of a reduction in employees.
"Under no circumstances was anyone on my staff terminated because of a personal indiscretion on my part," Gamrat said.