There are eight Republicans running to replace Cindy Gamrat in Michigan’s 80th State House District, including Gamrat herself. A new poll by Grassroots Midwest, Inside Michigan Politics, and Target Insyght shows that Gamrat is in second place with 14 points, trailing Mary Whiteford by 17 points.
The most notable result of the poll, in my opinion, is that if Gamrat were to win, she might well lose to her Democratic opponent:
Interestingly, 18 percent of Republican primary voters would support the eventual Democratic nominee over Cindy Gamrat if she were to somehow sneak through the Republican primary field, while 61 percent would support another candidate or simply stay home rather than cast a general election vote for Gamrat to return her the state House.
If anti-Gamrat Republican voters in the 80th District say “meh” on election day and stay home and/or Democrats cross over to monkey with the Republican primary – both very real possibilities – Gamrat could very well hand this seat over to a Democrat, albeit probably only for a year until the current term runs out. This is also the case in the 82nd House District where Todd Courser is tied for third place to replace himself.
From what I’ve heard from several legislative sources, Republican House Speaker Kevin Cotter will not sit either Courser or Gamrat should they win. This puts him in the position of telling voters in their districts that their votes don’t count and democracy is a sham. While many of us have thought this for some time, particularly given how Republicans replaced the Emergency Manager law killed by voters in 2012 with another one just like it a few weeks later, it would be a pretty shocking move.
Meanwhile, Todd Courser is still drafting legislation according to his Facebook page, despite the fact that he quit his House seat over a month ago. That guy…
