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Hubbard, one of the most powerful political players in the state, was indicted as part of an investigation by the attorney general’s office into corruption at the Statehouse and is awaiting trial on 23 felony ethics charges. His attorney has questioned parts of the law and how prosecutors are applying it in the case, including whether the statute covers political party activity. Ironically, after championing the 2010 changes, Hubbard, the former speaker, is now challenging their constitutionality. But the state still is plagued by allegations that the laws are broken on a much bigger scale. John Carroll, former acting director of the commission and a longtime political observer, said that since then, minor or unintentional violations have been drastically reduced. After that law was passed, the commission began a training program to make sure officials and employees knew details of the ethics laws.
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The 2010 law together with subsequent reforms also made it illegal for public officials and employees to accept most gifts valued at $25 or more. But in 2010, the law was revised to give the Ethics Commission subpoena powers and to formalize the investigative process, and in 2011, the commission was given a guaranteed budget. Eight other people, including four legislators, were found not guilty after a federal trial.Īn investigation into corruption in the state’s two-year college system netted more than a dozen guilty pleas and convictions between 20, including three legislators, the college chancellor and other state officials.įor many years, Alabama’s ethics law was criticized as toothless. In 2011, three people - a lobbyist, a casino developer and a state representative - pleaded guilty in a case that alleged legislators were bribed to vote for a bill to legalize electronic bingo. Governors are just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the tradition of corruption in Alabama government. The two scores are not directly comparable due to changes made to improve and update the project and methodology, such as eliminating the category for redistricting, a process that generally occurs only once every 10 years. While the score places Alabama in 7th place among 50, the highest-ranking state, Alaska, received a grade of C, and 11 earned Fs.Īlabama’s overall score was somewhat lower than what it received the first time the project was published, in 2012, when it was given a C-, though its ranking that year was 17th.
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Given all of this, it’s no surprise that Alabama scored a 67, D+, on the State Integrity Investigation, an assessment of state government accountability and transparency by the Center for Public Integrity and Global Integrity. Robert Bentley has used state resources for personal purposes, rumors that surfaced after Bentley’s wife filed for divorce in August. Now a lawmaker is asking the attorney general to investigate rumors that current Gov.
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Two of Alabama’s past six governors have been convicted while in office and sent to prison, one on a bribery conviction he still is appealing and the other for appropriating inaugural campaign funds for personal use. Again.Īlabama House Speaker Mike Hubbard, whose trial on ethics charges is set to begin in March, is just the latest in a string of high-profile politicians who have faced prosecution in recent memory. Pundits are saying the trial will shine a light on how things actually get done in Alabama politics. The witness list reads like pages torn from a Who’s Who in Alabama. Alabamians are bracing for a sweeping political prosecution that alleges influence-peddling at the highest levels of state government.