Mike Hubbard (born February 11, 1962) is an American former state politician and a convicted felon who was a Republican member of the

Alabama House of Representatives The Alabama State House of Representatives is the lower house of the Alabama Legislature, the state legislature of state of Alabama. The House is composed of 105 members representing an equal number of districts, with each constituency contain ...

, representing the 79th district in Lee County. He was first elected in 1998 and previously served as

Speaker of the Alabama House of Representatives The Alabama State House of Representatives is the lower house of the Alabama Legislature, the state legislature of state of Alabama. The House is composed of 105 members representing an equal number of districts, with each constituency contain ...

. Before that, he was House Minority Leader six years (2004–10) and was twice chairman of the

Alabama Republican Party The Alabama Republican Party is the state affiliate of the Republican Party in Alabama. It is the dominant political party in Alabama. The state party is governed by the Alabama Republican Executive Committee. The committee usually meets twice ...

(2007–11).

Early life and education

Hubbard was born and raised in

Hartwell, Georgia Hartwell is a city in Hart County, Georgia, United States. The population was 4,469 at the 2010 census. The city is the county seat of Hart County. History Hartwell was founded in 1854 as seat of the newly formed Hart County. It was incorporated ...

. During high school, Hubbard beat

Ralph Reed Ralph Eugene Reed Jr. (born June 24, 1961) is an American political consultant and lobbyist, best known as the first executive director of the Christian Coalition during the early 1990s. He sought the Republican nomination for the office of L ...

to become the Georgia state champion in the

Voice of Democracy Voice of Democracy (; abbreviated VOD) was an independent news agency based in Cambodia. VOD has provided significant investigative journalism within Cambodia, providing coverage on domestic issues including corruption, government wrongdoing, hum ...

speech contest. Hubbard went to the

University of Georgia , mottoeng = "To teach, to serve, and to inquire into the nature of things.""To serve" was later added to the motto without changing the seal; the Latin motto directly translates as "To teach and to inquire into the nature of things." , establ ...

on a journalism scholarship, where he helped lead the successful public relations campaign for Herschel Walker’s 1982

Heisman Trophy The Heisman Memorial Trophy (usually known colloquially as the Heisman Trophy or The Heisman) is awarded annually to the most outstanding player in college football. Winners epitomize great ability combined with diligence, perseverance, and har ...

Career

After graduating, Hubbard got a job in the

Auburn University Auburn University (AU or Auburn) is a public land-grant research university in Auburn, Alabama. With more than 24,600 undergraduate students and a total enrollment of more than 30,000 with 1,330 faculty members, Auburn is the second largest uni ...

athletic department and led a successful public relations campaign for

Bo Jackson Vincent Edward "Bo" Jackson (born November 30, 1962) is an American former professional baseball and American football player. He is the only professional athlete in history to be named an All-Star in both baseball and football. Jackson's el ...

’s 1985 Heisman candidacy. Hubbard left Auburn and started a new company, which then won exclusive broadcast rights for all Auburn Tigers sports and made Hubbard a millionaire. Prior to forming Auburn Network in 1994, he was a general manager of Host Communications (1990–1994), and associate sports information director for Auburn University (1984–1990). His company, Auburn Network, owns and operates four

radio station Radio broadcasting is transmission of audio (sound), sometimes with related metadata, by radio waves to radio receivers belonging to a public audience. In terrestrial radio broadcasting the radio waves are broadcast by a land-based radio st ...

s in the Auburn/Opelika market and publishes a quarterly magazine, ''East Alabama Living''. It also operates an advertising agency, Network Creative Media. His company sold the

multi-media Multimedia is a form of communication that uses a combination of different content forms such as text, audio, images, animations, or video into a single interactive presentation, in contrast to tradition ...

rights to

athletics to International Sports Properties in 2003, which merged with IMG's college sports marketing/broadcasting group in 2010.

Political career

In 1996,

Patrick Nix Patrick Nix is an American football coach and former player. He played college football as a quarterback at Auburn University from 1992 to 1995. Nix served as the head football coach at Henderson State University from 1999 to 2000, compiling a r ...

, (quarterback for Auburn in 1993), recommended that Hubbard apply his public relations expertise to

Bob Riley Robert Renfroe Riley (born October 3, 1944) is an American politician and businessman who served as the 52nd governor of Alabama from 2003 to 2011. A member of the Republican Party, he previously represented Alabama's 3rd district in the U.S ...

’s congressional campaign. Riley won and, in gratitude, invited Hubbard to attend the swearing-in ceremony in the

Alabama State Capitol The Alabama State Capitol, listed on the National Register of Historic Places as the First Confederate Capitol, is the state capitol building for Alabama. Located on Capitol Hill, originally Goat Hill, in Montgomery, it was declared a National H ...

, where Hubbard says he was impressed by the "symbols of our nation’s power." In 1998, Bill Canary provided polling during Hubbard's first election campaign. Hubbard won, taking a seat in the Alabama House of Representatives representing much of

Lee County, Alabama Lee County is a county located in east central Alabama. As of the 2020 census the population was 174,241. The county seat is Opelika, and the largest city is Auburn. The county is named for General Robert E. Lee (1807–1870), who served as ...

. In 2002, Riley won the Alabama gubernatorial election, and gave Hubbard the leadership of the

. Hubbard would later name his youngest son Riley. As leader of the state's Republican party, Hubbard became a member of the

Republican National Committee The Republican National Committee (RNC) is a U.S. political committee that assists the Republican Party of the United States. It is responsible for developing and promoting the Republican brand and political platform, as well as assisting in fu ...

, and received invitations to visit the

White House The White House is the official residence and workplace of the president of the United States. It is located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW in Washington, D.C., and has been the residence of every U.S. president since John Adams in 1800 ...

Arrest and conviction

In 2016, Hubbard was sentenced to four years in prison for felony violations of state ethics laws. He was soon removed as a member of the House. On September 11, 2020, he reported to the Lee County Sheriff's Office to be taken into custody and turned over to the Alabama Department of Corrections to begin his term of imprisonment. Hubbard was released from prison on January 8, 2023.

References

External links

Mike Hubbard Facebook page

Mike Hubbard Homepage (archived)

Project Vote Smart – Mike Hubbard
* Campaign contributions
2008200620021998
, - , - , - {{DEFAULTSORT:Hubbard, Mike 1959 births American broadcasters Auburn University personnel Living people Republican Party members of the Alabama House of Representatives People from Auburn, Alabama People from Hartwell, Georgia Speakers of the Alabama House of Representatives University of Georgia alumni Alabama politicians convicted of crimes American United Methodists 2004 United States presidential electors State political party chairs of Alabama