MONTGOMERY, Ala. - Alabama lawmakers on Tuesday set up an impeachment process that likely halts the effort to oust Gov. Robert Bentley.
The House of Representatives voted 79-14 Tuesday for a rule change to have the House Judiciary Committee investigate calls for impeachment. However, it would require 21 legislators to first sign impeachment articles. Eleven legislators filed impeachment articles against Bentley in the wake of a scandal and affair allegations involving a former top aide.
Rep. Mac McCutcheon, who proposed the 21-signature threshold, said that it would give articles "credibility." Other supporting lawmakers agreed that it should not be an easy to initiate impeachment proceedings.
"We don't need anger. We don't need emotion. We need facts," said McCutcheon, R-Capshaw.
The vote set up two procedural speed bumps in the vague impeachment process laid out in the 1901 Alabama Constitution. Rep. Ed Henry, who filed the impeachment articles against Bentley, said he believed there was an "orchestrated" effort to put his previously filed impeachment articles in limbo.
"I have to believe the only intention was to stall and prolong and eventually prevent the impeachment of Governor Robert Bentley," Henry said.
McCutcheon said legal counsel would have to determine the status of the impeachment articles already filed by Henry and 10 other lawmakers. Henry said he will try to get 21 signatures on new articles, but said it would be tough with four days remaining in the legislative session. He said lawmakers would also fear retribution by the governor's office.
Henry filed impeachment articles against Bentley after the former state law enforcement secretary accused Bentley of having an affair with a staffer and of interfering with law enforcement business. Bentley last month acknowledged making inappropriate remarks to his senior political adviser, Rebekah Caldwell Mason, but denied the other accusations. Recordings obtained by The Associated Press purportedly show the governor - before his 2015 divorce - professing love to someone and telling her how much he enjoyed kissing her and touching her breasts, and referencing a need to start locking his office door.
Under the approved process, the Judiciary Committee's recommendation - whether to impeach or not - would be sent to the full House of Representatives. Lawmakers on Tuesday added an additional procedural hurdle that would require 63 lawmakers in the 105-member House to bring the impeachment articles for a vote. A simple majority vote would be required to impeach, but lawmakers would first have to clear the 63-vote requirement. If House members vote to impeach, a trial would then be held in the Alabama Senate.
Henry said Tuesday that Bentley behaved in a way that "the people who sent me down here wouldn't want a governor to behave."
The debate highlighted divisions in the Alabama House of Representatives over the impeachment call.
"Ain't no law against having a girlfriend," said Rep. Alvin Holmes, D-Montgomery. Holmes added that he could name many legislators who committed their own infidelities. "If you misuse state funds and misuse state property that becomes another issue," he said.
Rep. Chris England, D-Tuscaloosa, said lawmakers should set up a deliberative and cautious process for impeachment, which is seldom attempted by state legislatures.
"We are talking about removing someone from office presumptively elected by a large popular vote. It should be serious. It should be deliberative. It should create due process for everyone involved," England said.
Lawmakers voted down a proposed amendment that would exempt Henry's impeachment call from the 21-vote requirement.
Bentley has dismissed the impeachment push as "political grandstanding."
The vote was likely rare welcome news to Bentley, who has struggled to shake off the scandal that has been featured on national comedy shows. It also has prompted multiple complaints to the Alabama Ethics Commission.
However, the vote came as another House member, in a nod to the scandal in the governor's office, pushed to prohibit gubernatorial advisers from being paid by outside sources as Mason was.
Rep. Jim Patterson introduced the legislation that would require executive branch advisers, with decision-making responsibilities, to be paid by state funds.
Mason played a key role in Bentley's administration, but was not on the state payroll after Bentley's re-election in 2014. The governor's office said she was paid by campaign funds because her role involved politics.
Bentley's former interim chief of staff Seth Hammett remained on the payroll of PowerSouth Energy Cooperative while working in the governor's office.