Gov. Robert Bentley will have to defend his decision to set the special election to fill Jeff Sessions’ vacated U.S. Senate seat for 2018 in a hearing next month. Bentley’s decision is being challenged in court by Republican State Auditor Jim Zeigler and retired District Attorney Tommy Chapman, a Democrat, who contend the governor set the election so far in the future in order to give sitting Senator and former Alabama Attorney General Luther Strange two years of incumbency as payment to halt an investigation. A state House committee investigating Bentley but was told to stop Nov. 3 after Strange said his office was doing “related work.”
Strange had announced he would run for the vacant U.S. Senate seat but would not apply for appointment by Bentley. He then proceeded to interview with Bentley for the job, which he was appointed to Feb. 9.
After his appointment, Strange said in a news conference that he never claimed he was investigating Bentley.
“The whole thing stinks,” Zeigler said. “We’ve got a Bentley appointed senator instead of a peoples’ elected senator.”
Full Article: Robert Bentley to defend his special election decision next month.