Alabama Governor, Champion of HB 56, in Ethics Hot Water
The Governor of Alabama Robert Bentley, who signed into law Alabama’s tough immigration enforcement law (HB 56), which the 11th Circuit invalidated in large part, finds himself in some ethics hot water.
Politico reports that the state auditor of Alabama on Friday filed an ethics violations report against Gov. Bentley, initiating a legal investigation into “misuse of state property” as well as the legality of his senior political adviser Rebekah Caldwell Mason’s status as either a public official or a lobbyist. Here is the report.
The ethics report questions how Mason is paid, whether Bentley and Mason are “using state property in furtherance of their personal relationship.” As Bentley’s senior political adviser, Mason is not currently on the state payroll and has not been since 2013, when she and her company RCM Communications did consulting work for the governor’s 2014 reelection campaign.
The Governor needs to be truthful with people of our state, about the nature and the funding of Ms. Mason’s employment with his office,” the State Auditor stated. “This is not about his personal peccadillos, it is about the improper use of state funds and the right of the people to know who is paying the advisors to our public officials.”
An audiotape has made the rounds. “You know what, when I stand behind you and I put my arms around you, and I put my hands on your breasts, and I put my hands on you … and pull you real close … Hey, I love that too, putting my hands under you,” Bentley was recorded saying to a woman, allegedly Mason, on the phone in one of the recordings cited by Collier. “I love you. I love to talk to you. I do. … But baby, lemme tell you what we’re gonna have to do tonight: Start locking the door. … If we’re gonna do what we did the other day, we’re gonna have to start locking the door.”
KJ