 |
| This is the artwork on Hall’s Friday column. |
Brandon Hall, a conservative blogger from
western Michigan, finds himself in a very nasty, very public fight with Republican
state Rep. Daniela Garcia of Holland, who allegedly suggested that Hall may
have been the recipient of confidential GOP information from a tea party lawmaker/leaker.
The other legislator in this odd triangle
is, of course, Rep. Cindy Gamrat of Allegan County, who was booted from the GOP
caucus earlier this month by Speaker of the House Kevin Cotter. Though Gamrat (like
Garcia, a freshman) denies it, Cotter explained that Gamrat on several
occasions had shared GOP budget strategy info that derived from closed-door
meetings of lawmakers.
The story took another turn when speculation
began floating about among the Capitol press corps that the blogger, Hall, was
tied to this mini-scandal and that he was invited by Gamrat to attend one of
those secret budget sessions.
blog, West Michigan Politics (WMP), that Garcia floated the (phony) rumor and
that it was Garcia who was primarily responsible for Gamrat’s ouster. Hall went
on to claim that Garcia was motivated by naked political ambition and the hope
that she will someday become speaker.
Here’s a portion of what Hall wrote:“I couldn’t believe I was hearing this
(rumor). Such BS trash came from only ONE place, state Rep. Daniela Garcia.
Garcia is third in command of House Leadership, and some factions want her to
be speaker one day. Powerful factions: think the likes of (Dick) DeVos. She,
too, wants to be speaker
“She is the ONLY person who would have known enough to take a small sliver
of truth and rig it all to hell, then feed it to media. No one else would know
enough about the situation to provide media outlets with what they received! No
one. Garcia or an agent she asked contacted multiple media outlets to tell an
absolute lie. And she is spreading it all over Lansing too, adding other
baseless accusations as well.”
 |
| Gamrat |
Hall explained the “small sliver of truth” this way: He had stumbled upon a
group of GOP members of the House Budget Committee entering into a private
session and Garcia aggressively shooed him away. Apparently Hall and Garcia
have some bad blood between them dating back to her successful 2014 House
campaign. From there, the blog gets more personal. He
associates Garcia with a group of west Michigan establishment Republicans who
follow this career path: “get elected, serve mostly special interests, avoid
real people, move up the ladder.”
Then Hall adds this “Star Wars”-themed flourish:
“Daniela wants to head the Empire, she’s
Darth Vader in waiting while Gamrat is Luke Skywalker, fighting like hell with
everything she has to blow up the “Death Star” that is Lansing.
“… Garcia’s devious, deceptive whisper campaign, trying to tie Gamrat with WMP,
is an absolute, bogus LIE. I can confirm for a 100 percent fact Daniela’s ‘theory’
is making its way around the Capitol, along with other false allegations that
Gamrat is giving me information about caucus meetings. It’s a cooked-up BS
power play. She should be ashamed of herself.”
