After
16 hours with her fate in the balance, Representative Cindy Gamrat (R-Plainwell)
was removed from office by a vote of 91-12 while her colleague Representative
Todd Courser (R-Silverwood) resigned early Friday morning. Ms. Gamrat became
the fourth legislator ever to be expelled.
Thursday
afternoon, the select House Committee voted 4-0 in favor of resolutions to expel
the duo from the House for misuse of state resources for personal and political
gain. The resolution was then taken up in the House where a two-thirds
supermajority would be necessary to officially remove them from the House. The
House did not adjourn until after 4:00 AM on Friday.
Mr.
Courser and Ms. Gamrat admitted under oath they had misused state resources,
however the House took several hours to muster the two-thirds supermajority
vote. It was the belief of some Democratic Representatives that the process was
rushed and one-sided, and the situation would benefit from an outside
investigation. Minority Floor Leader Sam Singh mentioned the difficulty for
non-committee members to obtain access to the committee documents, and that he
felt time was needed for all the information to be reviewed. The first resolution
vote was open for two hours and failed 67-14 with 26 Democratic members
abstaining. The resolution reopened for five hours with all members required to
vote if not excused.
Censure
was the alternative outcome, but the House felt this was insufficient.
Representative Gary Glenn (R-Midland) felt that censure “would only punish the
lawmakers' constituents and expulsion is the appropriate answer.”
Several
hours into the proceedings, Speaker Kevin Cotter (R-Mount Pleasant) and
Minority Leader Tim Greimel (D-Auburn Hills) spoke in private for several hours
and appeared to reach an agreement. Former Representative Todd Courser saw the
House was going to work together until the votes were acquired, and thus
decided to submit his letter of resignation at 3:12 AM. Former Representative
Cindy Gamrat decided to stay and fight the expulsion. In her last testimony
before the House, Ms. Gamrat said, "I know in my heart the mistakes I have
made are not all of the mistakes in the report. I still believe my actions warrant
censure, but not expulsion.” The House Resolution in favor of expulsion passed
91-12, effectively removing Ms. Gamrat at 4:13 AM.
In
order to get those final votes, House Republicans agreed to amend the expulsion
resolutions to include a formal request to the Department of State Police and
Attorney General Bill Schuette to investigate the actions of Mr. Courser and
Ms. Gamrat. Minority Leader Greimel went on to say House Democrats were not disagreeing
with the expulsion; they wanted an outside agency to investigate.
With
his caucus down two members, Speaker Cotter commented, "It's not a good
feeling. It's a sad day.”