On the heels of Republican Cindy Gamrat filing to run for the House seat her colleagues threw her out of in the wee hours of the morning last Friday, her beau former colleague, Todd Courser, today announced that he, too, will run in the Republican primary for the seat he quit just seven days ago.
He made the announcement today on CNN saying that his wife, who he claims hates him, told him to go ahead. “It really was up to my wife,” he said in the CNN interview. “Yesterday, she gave me to go ahead. She said yes, run. She said the people haven’t had the opportunity to weigh in on this.”
Courser followed up the CNN announcement with an official announcement just before noon on his Facebook page:
I have been asked if I would run for State Representative. My wife and I spent some time yesterday in North Branch Park discussing this. She said, “Yes, you absolutely should run. The voters didn’t have a chance to decide. The decision was taken from them. The people never had an opportunity to hear about all the good representation you have given them in both your Conservative voting record and your Conservative legislation. Put your name in, run, give the people a chance to consider your record and decide for themselves.”Today, I am announcing my candidacy for State Representative for the 82nd District. I felt you needed to see the Conservative work that I accomplished as your State Representative. In my campaign, I promised to not vote for any tax increase or spending increase and that I would fight against ever growing government – many Republicans say such things to get elected; I said it and did it. I have kept those promises. In this new campaign I renew those commitments to you.
I came into politics fighting against the biggest progressive forces in our state and fought to advance cutting edge legislation on life, the 2nd amendment, lower taxes and less spending. I don’t and haven’t worked for the Speaker or the Governor; I worked for you the people of Lapeer County and the taxpayers of the State of Michigan. I have fought for nearly a year against the Governor and the Speaker’s efforts to pass the sales tax increase, the gas tax increase and along the way pushed to bring forward a plan to pave our roads with existing money.
[List of 35 accomplishments the last, #35, of which is “And many, many more efforts.”]
I think the people of District 82 should see that I’ve kept my commitment. Please look at my record of important accomplishments. Please remember as you go to vote about my efforts as one of the lone voices for liberty in the legislature. I have and will remain a steadfast proponent to advance the cause of liberty and freedom.
I’m told that seven other Republicans have already filed for the primary to replace Courser so this will be another situation where if Courser’s numerous opponents split the “Anybody Except That Lying, Cheating Philanderer” vote, he could actually get elected which puts the Democrat who runs against him in the election on March 8, 2016 a good shot at taking the seat, something that would never happen in normal year. Whoever wins will need to turn around run again in the November election since state House of Representative terms are only two years.
It’s worth noting that these two self-described fiscal conservatives and hopeless narcissists are costing their districts large sums of money:
The special primary election will be held Nov. 3 with the general election scheduled for next May. County clerks in both counties said the special election is going to be expensive. Both counties had already printed ballots for the Nov. 3 election and were preparing to send out absentee ballots. Those ballots will have to be thrown out to accommodate the election in the two state House districts. Lapeer County Clerk Theresa Spencer said the election will cost between $100,000 and $120,000. While Watts said it could cost up to $30,000 to replace the ballots that had to be thrown away.
So much for fiscal conservatism.
On Twitter, Steve Curry wondered if I am just making this outlandish story up:
@Eclectablog @LOLGOP I'm starting to wonder,
Are you making this all up?
— Steve Curry (@scurryn) September 18, 2015
Sadly, as creative a writer as I may or may not be, I could never come up with a story this unbelievable. Truth, in this case, isn’t just stranger than fiction, it’s far less credible. On a ridiculously large number of levels.
Oh, Todd and Cindy, why can’t you just quit us?
