Blogger battles with state Rep over secret GOP meetings

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.

Hall struck back on Friday, writing on his 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.”