“Did they break the House rules of using staffers to advance their own political agenda?”
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She thanked her family, supporters, and even those people who wanted her to resign, saying she appreciated their advice and concern. She said the extra-marital affair she had with State Rep. Todd Courser, R-Lapeer, was known to her family and was something they were working through “privately”. She never mentioned Courser by name, instead referring only to “another representative”.
Gamrat described her relationship with Courser now as “professional”.
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.
Today, Gamrat says the staffer was not fired for bringing up the affair, but for poor performance.
FOX 2’s political guru Tim Skubick says the legislature is investigating to see whether Coursea and Gamrate used any taxpayer dollars to cover up, and that means checking to see how involved their paid employees may have been.
The 42-year-old Gamrat is a tea party activist who took office in January.
But Gamrat said Friday she would not resign, and said she was confident an investigation into her actions would clear her of any wrongdoing.
“She believes that once the investigation is done that it’s going to probably not be as big of an issue as what everybody’s making it out to be”.
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She also said she intends at this point to continue representing the 80th House district.
