Robert Julian Bentley (born February 3, 1943) is an American former politician and physician who served as the
53rd governor of Alabama from 2011 until 2017 upon his resignation after a
sex scandal involving a political aide and subsequent
arrest.
A member of the
Republican Party, Bentley was elected governor in 2010 and re-elected in 2014.
Born in
Columbiana, Alabama
Columbiana is a city and the county seat of Shelby County, Alabama, Shelby County, Alabama, United States. At the 2020 United States Census, 2020 census, the population was 4,462.
History
Columbiana, originally called Columbia, was selected as t ...
, Bentley earned his
M.D.
Doctor of Medicine (abbreviated M.D., from the Latin ''Medicinae Doctor'') is a medical degree, the meaning of which varies between different jurisdictions. In the United States, and some other countries, the M.D. denotes a professional degree. ...
from the
University of Alabama School of Medicine
A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. In the United States, th ...
in 1968 and then
served in the
United States Air Force
The United States Air Force (USAF) is the Aerial warfare, air military branch, service branch of the United States Armed Forces, and is one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. Originally created on 1 August 1907, as a part ...
as a medical officer at
Pope Air Force Base
Pope Field is a U.S. military facility located 12 miles (19 km) northwest of the central business district of Fayetteville, in Cumberland County, North Carolina, United States.. Federal Aviation Administration. effective 15 November 2012 ...
in
Fayetteville, North Carolina from 1969 to 1975 until leaving the service as a
captain. He entered private medical practice and opened a series of dermatology clinics throughout the
southern United States
The Southern United States (sometimes Dixie, also referred to as the Southern States, the American South, the Southland, or simply the South) is a geographic and cultural region of the United States of America. It is between the Atlantic Ocean ...
.
Bentley was elected to the
Alabama House of Representatives in 2002 and served a total of two four-year terms from 2003 to 2010. In 2010, Bentley announced his intentions to run for the Republican nomination for governor. Bentley won in a seven-candidate primary and faced
Democrat
Democrat, Democrats, or Democratic may refer to:
Politics
*A proponent of democracy, or democratic government; a form of government involving rule by the people.
*A member of a Democratic Party:
**Democratic Party (United States) (D)
**Democratic ...
Ron Sparks, the outgoing
Alabama Commissioner of Agriculture, in the
general election. Bentley received just over 58% of the statewide vote and won by a margin of over 230,000 votesthe largest margin recorded for a Republican in an open-seat race in
Alabama history. In
2014
File:2014 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Stocking up supplies and personal protective equipment (PPE) for the Western African Ebola virus epidemic; Citizens examining the ruins after the Chibok schoolgirls kidnapping; Bundles of wat ...
, Bentley won re-election, winning the largest percentage of the vote that any Republican gubernatorial candidate had received in modern Alabama history, 63.6%.
On April 5, 2016, Republican State Representative
Ed Henry
Edward Michael Henry Jr. (born July 20, 1971) is an American journalist. Henry was the co-host of ''America's Newsroom'' on the Fox News Channel, along with Sandra Smith. On June 20, 2011, he left CNN, to become the Fox News White House Corresp ...
filed an
impeachment resolution against Bentley in the State Legislature, in connection with allegations that Bentley engaged in an
extramarital affair
An affair is a sexual relationship, romantic friendship, or passionate attachment in which at least one of its participants has a formal or informal commitment to a third person who may neither agree to such relationship nor even be aware of ...
with a female political adviser from Tuscaloosa, AL.
Bentley has admitted to making inappropriate remarks toward the woman, but denied having a physical affair.
On July 7, 2016, the House Judiciary Committee named a special counsel to lead an
impeachment inquiry against the governor. On April 5, 2017, the Ethics Commission found probable cause that Bentley violated both ethics and campaign finance laws.
Bentley tendered his immediate resignation as Governor of Alabama on April 10, 2017, after pleading guilty to two misdemeanor charges related to
campaign finance
Campaign finance, also known as election finance or political donations, refers to the funds raised to promote candidates, political parties, or policy initiatives and referendums. Political parties, charitable organizations, and political a ...
law, including chartering the state's helicopter to retrieve his wallet that was only a 30-minute drive away. Bentley allegedly used state resources to facilitate and conceal his extramarital affair. As part of the plea deal, he accepted a lifetime ban from ever seeking public office in Alabama again. He was succeeded by
Lieutenant Governor Kay Ivey
Kay Ellen Ivey (born October 15, 1944) is an American politician serving as the 54th and incumbent governor of Alabama since 2017. Originally a conservative Southern Democrat, Ivey became a member of the Republican Party in 2002. She was the 38th ...
.
[Amber Phillips]
Alabama governor resigns, pleads guilty to charges tied to allegations he tried to cover up affair with a top aide
''Washington Post'' (April 10, 2017).
Early life, education, and Air Force service
Bentley is a native of
Columbiana, Alabama
Columbiana is a city and the county seat of Shelby County, Alabama, Shelby County, Alabama, United States. At the 2020 United States Census, 2020 census, the population was 4,462.
History
Columbiana, originally called Columbia, was selected as t ...
, in
Shelby County. His parents, Mattie Boyd (née Vick) and David Harford Bentley, did not complete school past junior high. Bentley's father was a sawmill worker who voted with the Populist Republicans, a splinter branch of the Republican Party formed by people who had been part of the state's defunct populist movement.
At one point, Bentley lived in a house with no electricity or running water.
[
Bentley grew up in Columbiana, where he was a member of Shelby County High School's 1961 state championship debate team, and he became student body president in his senior year of high school.]
After graduating from Shelby County High School at the top of his class, Bentley enrolled at the University of Alabama
The University of Alabama (informally known as Alabama, UA, or Bama) is a public research university in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. Established in 1820 and opened to students in 1831, the University of Alabama is the oldest and largest of the publi ...
. While at Alabama, Bentley majored in Chemistry and Biology
Biology is the scientific study of life. It is a natural science with a broad scope but has several unifying themes that tie it together as a single, coherent field. For instance, all organisms are made up of cells that process hereditary i ...
and graduated with his Bachelor of Science degree in three years.
After graduating from UA, he began his studies at The University of Alabama School of Medicine
A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. In the United States, th ...
. During his first year of medical school, he met Martha Dianne Jones of Montgomery. They were married on July 24, 1965. He graduated with his M.D. in 1968 and began his one-year internship at Carraway Methodist Hospital in Birmingham.
Bentley joined the United States Air Force in 1969 as a captain. He served as a general medical officer at Pope Air Force Base
Pope Field is a U.S. military facility located 12 miles (19 km) northwest of the central business district of Fayetteville, in Cumberland County, North Carolina, United States.. Federal Aviation Administration. effective 15 November 2012 ...
in Fayetteville, North Carolina. While there, he served as an interim hospital commander for a time.
Dermatologist career
Following his military service, Bentley began a three-year residency at the University of Alabama
The University of Alabama (informally known as Alabama, UA, or Bama) is a public research university in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. Established in 1820 and opened to students in 1831, the University of Alabama is the oldest and largest of the publi ...
in dermatology
Dermatology is the branch of medicine dealing with the skin.''Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary.'' Random House, Inc. 2001. Page 537. . It is a speciality with both medical and surgical aspects. A dermatologist is a specialist medica ...
. He then opened his dermatology practice in Tuscaloosa in 2019. He founded a number of small businesses, the most successful of which is Alabama Dermatology Associates. As President of Alabama Dermatology Associates, Bentley managed the practice's growth into one of the largest dermatology practices in the Southeastern United States. Bentley is a board certified dermatologist, and he served two terms as President of the Alabama Dermatology Society. He has also been named to "Best Doctors in America," selected by his peers. Bentley is a member of the American Academy of Dermatology and the Medical Association of Alabama.
Alabama House of Representatives
Elections
In 1998, Bentley ran for the Alabama State Senate
The Alabama State Senate is the upper house of the Alabama Legislature, the state legislature of the U.S. state of Alabama. The body is composed of 35 members representing an equal number of districts across the state, with each district conta ...
as a Republican against incumbent Democrat Phil Poole, losing by fifty-eight votes.
In 2002 Bentley was elected to the Alabama State 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 conta ...
from Tuscaloosa County
Tuscaloosa County is a county in the northwest-central portion of the U.S. state of Alabama and is the center of commerce, education, industry, health care, and entertainment for the region.
The county's population was 227,036 as of the 2020 ...
with almost 65% of the vote. In 2006 Bentley ran unopposed for re-election to the State House.
Tenure
In the Alabama House of Representatives, Bentley made it a priority to train primary care health care providers and to increase organ donation. He is responsible for two major revisions of Alabama's organ donor laws: one specific to corneas and the other reinforcing the rights of organ donors by making it difficult to challenge their decisions.
Bentley helped establish the Alabama Medical Educational Consortium. His efforts included work on legislation to expand scholarships for medical training. Questions were raised by Sparks camp during the gubernatorial campaign as to whether Bentley's son, while in medical school, benefited from his father's involvement with the consortium.
Bentley is opposed to increasing taxes. He has signed the No New Taxes Pledge by the Americans for Tax Reform
Americans for Tax Reform (ATR) is a politically conservative U.S. advocacy group whose stated goal is "a system in which taxes are simpler, flatter, more visible, and lower than they are today." According to ATR, "The government's power to contro ...
.
In April 2010, Bentley's self-drafted Reemployment Act of 2010 won unanimous approval in both houses of the Alabama State Legislature, and was signed by Governor 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. ...
on April 22.
In 2008, Bentley was elected as a Republican Presidential Delegate for Mike Huckabee. At the Republican National Convention he represented Alabama on the Republican Platform Committee. For the United States presidential election in 2016
The 2016 United States presidential election was the 58th quadrennial presidential election, held on Tuesday, November 8, 2016. The Republican ticket of businessman Donald Trump and Indiana governor Mike Pence defeated the Democratic ticket ...
, Bentley endorsed fellow governor John Kasich
John Richard Kasich Jr. ( ; born May 13, 1952) is an American politician, author, and television news host who served in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1983 to 2001 and as the 69th governor of Ohio from 2011 to 2019. A Republican, Kasic ...
.
Committee assignments
During his time in Montgomery he served on the Education Appropriations Committee, the Boards and Commissions Committee, the Agriculture and Forestry Committee, and was a member of the Tuscaloosa County Legislative Delegation. He also served as the Vice-Chairman of the Internal Affairs Committee.
Governor of Alabama (2011–2017)
2010 gubernatorial election
In the June 1, 2010 primary race, Bentley surprised political analysts by finishing second ahead of Tim James to reach a runoff election with Bradley Byrne. One of James' supporters, former U.S. Representative Sonny Callahan
Herbert Leon "Sonny" Callahan (September 11, 1932 – June 24, 2021) was an American businessman and politician from Alabama. After being elected as a Democrat from Mobile to the state house and senate, he shifted to the Republican Party after ...
, endorsed Bentley in the runoff.
In the July 13 run-off election, Bentley defeated Byrne by a 56%-44% margin to claim the Republican nomination for governor, leaning on the Alabama Education Association.
In the general election, Bentley defeated Democrat Ron Sparks, 57.9% to 42.1%.
Bentley has stated he does not approve of gambling in the State of Alabama, but supports a referendum for its citizens to vote on whether to approve its legality.
2014 gubernatorial election
In the general election held on November 4, 2014, Bentley won re-election easily against Democratic candidate Parker Griffith
Rolf Parker Griffith Jr. (born August 6, 1942) is an American retired physician, entrepreneur and politician who served in the Alabama State Senate from 2006 to 2008 and then as the U.S. representative for from 2009 to 2011.
A lifelong member o ...
, gathering almost twice the votes of his rival at 63% to 36%. In the process, Bentley won the largest percentage of the vote of any Republican gubernatorial candidate in modern Alabama history.
Two days after he was inaugurated, Bentley told a Baptist church audience that only those who had accepted Jesus Christ as their savior were his brothers and sisters. Bentley apologized for the remarks, saying he would be a "governor of all the people."
Tenure
Bentley's tenure was largely defined by his scandal. Nonetheless, Montgomery Advertiser praised his response to deadly tornadoes that swept through Alabama in Spring 2011. He also advocated for increased funding for pre-K
Pre-kindergarten (also called Pre-K or PK) is a voluntary classroom-based preschool program for children below the age of five in the United States, Canada, Turkey and Greece (when kindergarten starts). It may be delivered through a preschool o ...
programs, and, in 2015, he played a major role in the removal of Confederate flags from the State Capitol. He also argued with state Republican leaders for a 2% teacher pay raise, and in 2015, he also proposed a $700+ million revenue package consisting of tax increases.
An analysis of Republican governors by Nate Silver
Nathaniel Read Silver (born January 13, 1978) is an American statistician, writer, and poker player who analyzes baseball (see sabermetrics), basketball, and elections (see psephology). He is the founder and editor-in-chief of ''FiveThirtyEigh ...
of ''The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...
'' in April 2013 ranked Bentley as the 16th most conservative governor in the country.
Political positions
Abortion
Bentley is anti-abortion, but in 2010, he supported abortions in cases where the mother's life was in danger.
Budget and economy
Bentley favors a balanced and conservative budget without federal aide, though it's worth noting that Alabama ranks No. 7 in federal aide per person as of 2022. He pledged to cut taxes 15-45% in 2011 while protecting essential services.
Civil Rights
In 1998, he called to affirmative action for colleges & state contracts. He does not support gay marriage or civil unions as of 2010. He also voted no on adding sexual orientation to hate crime criteria.
Local Issues
He called to fix the fatally-dangerous Redmill Bridge, despite obstacles.
Criminal Justice
Bentley supports ending parole for repeat felons. He wants to expand the use of the death penalty and limit appeals. He advocates against defunding the police, instead calling for police budget increases (even to train them in Spanish). He called for the construction of four new state prison facilities.
Drugs
Bentley has called for strengthening penalties for drug-related crimes, but he has expressed support for rehabilitation for non-violent criminals, such as drug offenders. He has pledged to fight opioid addiction and drug use.
Education
He has supported moment-of-silence and teacher spanking laws. He has advocated for more power to local school boards to make decisions.
Environment and Energy
He supports off-shore drilling and the oil and gas industries. He believes the primary value of forests is economic and job related. He has stated that Gulf State Park
Gulf State Park is a public recreation area on the Gulf of Mexico in the city of Gulf Shores in southern Baldwin County, Alabama. The state park's mostly encompass the land behind the Gulf Shores beach community, between Highway 59 and SH 161 ...
is economically & environmentally sustainable.
Foreign Policy
He supported a suit of federal government to reform Refugee Resettlement Act.
Jobs
Bentley refused to accept his gubernatorial salary until the state unemployment level reached 5.2%.["About Governor Bentley"](_blank)
''The Office of Alabama Governor''. Retrieved February 9, 2015. In a June 2013 analysis by ''The Business Journal
American City Business Journals, Inc. (ACBJ) is an American newspaper publisher based in Charlotte, North Carolina. ACBJ publishes The Business Journals, which contains local business news for 44 markets in the United States, Hemmings Motor News ...
'' looking at 45 of the country's 50 governors by their job creation record, Bentley was ranked at number 36 (tied). The five governors omitted from the analysis all assumed office in 2013. The ranking was based on a comparison of the annual private sector growth rate in all 50 states using data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. According to his official website, in Bentley's first three years in office, Alabama gained nearly 60,000 jobs, and in addition, Governor Bentley had recruited over 55,000 new, future jobs.
Government Reform
He has called for no campaign spending limits and no state funding of candidates.
Gun Control
Bentley opposes gun control measures, advocating for the right to purchase, own, carry and use firearms.
Health Care
He opposes the Affordable Care Act and has supported loosening the one-size-fits-all approach to Medicaid. He is against Medicaid expansion, even with federal dollars. He argued Alabama should reject the ACA under the 10th amendment.
Immigration
In June 2011, Bentley signed into law Alabama HB 56, an anti- illegal immigration law which was considered to be the toughest of such in the United States. On August 20, 2012, the Eleventh Circuit invalidated portions of the law, declaring them to be unconstitutional. The United States Supreme Court later denied certiorari, refusing to review the Eleventh Circuit's decision. On July 22, 2014, Bentley, along with several other Republican governors, sent a letter to President Barack Obama
Barack Hussein Obama II ( ; born August 4, 1961) is an American politician who served as the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party, Obama was the first African-American president of the ...
, expressing their concern about the handling of the 2014 border crisis.
Donald Trump
He refused to endorse Donald J. Trump in the 2016 presidential campaign.
Affair
On March 22, 2016, Bentley fired Alabama Law Enforcement Agency secretary Spencer Collier
Jack Spencer Collier (born March 27, 1973) is an American politician who served as a Republican member for the 105th district in the Alabama House of Representatives from 2002 to 2011. After two terms in the legislature, Collier was appointed as ...
, citing misuse of state funds under Collier. An independent state audit found no issues with the agency. Following his firing, Collier alleged that Bentley had engaged in an extramarital affair with his senior political adviser, Rebekah Caldwell Mason. Collier stated in a press conference the following day that he had seen sexually-charged texts between Bentley and Mason and heard audio recordings of conversations between the two. On March 23, AL.com released an audio recording purportedly created by the Bentley family in order to determine whether Gov. Bentley was engaged in an inappropriate relationship. In the recording, Bentley stated to a woman he called "Rebekah" that he "worr edabout loving you so much" and that " en I stand behind you, and I put my arms around you, and I put my hands on your breasts ..and just pull you real close. I love that, too." At a press conference that day, Bentley apologized for the comments but denied having an affair and stated that his relationship with Mason had not been sexual. Bentley admitted that he had made a mistake by saying "inappropriate things" to Mason, and apologized to Mason and her family and to the people of Alabama.
Ethics violations and impeachment
Jim Zeigler, the State Auditor of Alabama, filed an ethics complaint against Bentley for allegedly using state property in the course of his relationship with Mason. State Representative David Standridge and 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 a ...
committee member Terry L. Dunn called on Bentley to resign.
On March 30, 2016, Mason resigned, stating she would no longer serve as the governor's senior political adviser, and would no longer be paid by his campaign fund. The same day, Republican State Representative Ed Henry
Edward Michael Henry Jr. (born July 20, 1971) is an American journalist. Henry was the co-host of ''America's Newsroom'' on the Fox News Channel, along with Sandra Smith. On June 20, 2011, he left CNN, to become the Fox News White House Corresp ...
said that he would file a resolution calling for Bentley's impeachment. On April 5, 2016, Henry announced that he had filed an impeachment resolution against Bentley. At the time of Henry's announcement, it was reported that the resolution would be referred to the legislature's House Rules Committee for review and further action. In a shocking turn of events, Ed Henry himself was later sentenced to two years of probation by U.S. District Judge Keith Watkins, but for an unrelated case (where he and a Montgomery doctor plotted to defraud Medicare)
At the time the impeachment resolution was filed against Bentley, the Alabama Constitution authorized impeachment proceedings against the governor, but the state legislature had no impeachment procedures in place. On April 26, 2016, the state House of Representatives adopted a rule setting up impeachment procedures; the rule requires the signatures of at least 21 legislators to start impeachment proceedings in the legislature's House Judiciary Committee. While Henry originally had 10 co-sponsors for his impeachment resolution, on April 28 he announced that he had obtained a total of 23 signatures on his impeachment resolution, which was sufficient to file impeachment articles
An article of impeachment is a documented statement which specifies the charges to be tried in an impeachment trial as a basis for removing an officeholder. Articles of impeachment are an aspect of impeachment processes of many governments that uti ...
under the new procedures. On March 20, 2017, Henry said that he expected "that the governor either will have resigned or the impeachment committee will be moving at a very rapid pace" by mid-April.
On April 5, 2017, the Ethics Commission found probable cause that Bentley had committed four Class B felonies; the Commission determining in four separate votes that "there was probable cause that Bentley violated one count of state ethics law and three counts of the Fair Campaign Practices Act (state campaign finance law). Two of the votes were decided 4–0, while two others were 3–1.
Bentley sought to block impeachment, arguing in state courts that he was not given due process. On April 7, Montgomery County Circuit Court Judge Greg Griffi
granted a temporary restraining order
An injunction is a legal and equitable remedy in the form of a special court order that compels a party to do or refrain from specific acts. ("The court of appeals ... has exclusive jurisdiction to enjoin, set aside, suspend (in whole or in par ...
in Bentley's favor, but in a unanimous ruling the next day, the Alabama Supreme Court stayed that decision and allowed impeachment hearings to go forward while the case was pending.[Mike Cason]
Alabama Gov. Robert Bentley impeachment hearings begin today
AL.com (April 10, 2017).
On April 7, the special counsel appointed by the Alabama House of Representatives released a 131-page report on the impeachment inquiry. The report concluded that Bentley had "encouraged an atmosphere of intimidation" as governor. The report also "alleged that the governor's critics had been subjected to coercion, including harassing messages and the threat of criminal prosecution" and "described how Mr. Bentley tried to use a member of his security detail to break up with Ms. Mason on his behalf and how the governor demanded that Ms. Mason be allowed to travel in official vehicles after she left the state's payroll."
Resignation and guilty plea
On April 10, 2017, on the same day that the state legislature began impeachment proceedings Bentley resigned as governor of Alabama. On the same day, Bentley pleaded guilty to two misdemeanor charges: one for failing to file a major contribution report and the other for knowingly converting campaign contributions for personal use.[Howard Koplowitz]
With shaky voice, slumped shoulders, Robert Bentley faces court
AL.com (April 10, 2017). Both charges related to Bentley's concealment of the alleged affair. He was booked at the Montgomery County Jail and on the same day was sentenced by Montgomery County Judge Troy Massey to a suspended sentence of 30 days in jail (allowing him to avoid jail time), as well as one year of probation and 100 hours of community service
Community service is unpaid work performed by a person or group of people for the benefit and betterment of their community without any form of compensation. Community service can be distinct from volunteering, since it is not always performe ...
, to be performed under Bentley's role as a physician. The judge said that Bentley's probation could be terminated early "if he meets conditions of the plea deal, including refunding his campaign account nearly $9,000 and surrendering his accountworth $37,000to the state within a week." The guilty plea was part of a plea agreement with the Alabama State Attorney General's office, under which Bentley pleaded guilty to misdemeanor charges "in an effort to avoid felony charges and potential jail time." As part of the plea agreement, Bentley accepted a lifetime ban from ever holding public office in Alabama again.[
Bentley was the fourth Alabama governor to resign from office.] He was succeeded by Lieutenant Governor Kay Ivey
Kay Ellen Ivey (born October 15, 1944) is an American politician serving as the 54th and incumbent governor of Alabama since 2017. Originally a conservative Southern Democrat, Ivey became a member of the Republican Party in 2002. She was the 38th ...
, who was sworn into office the day Bentley resigned.
Personal life
Bentley and his former wife Dianne have four sons and six granddaughters and one grandson. He was an active member of First Baptist Church Tuscaloosa
Tuscaloosa ( ) is a city in and the seat of Tuscaloosa County in west-central Alabama, United States, on the Black Warrior River where the Gulf Coastal and Piedmont plains meet. Alabama's fifth-largest city, it had an estimated population of ...
where he served as a deacon and a Sunday School teacher. At FBC Tuscaloosa, he has been the chairman of the board of deacons four times and a member of the Youth for Christ advisory board as well as the Family Counseling advisory board. In 2016, during the sex scandal involving Bentley, First Baptist Church of Tuscaloosa's senior pastor, Gil McKee, issued a statement saying, "While church discipline is a church family matter, both Governor Robert Bentley and Mrs. Rebekah Mason are no longer members of First Baptist Church Tuscaloosa. I continue to pray for each of them".
As governor, he served on the board of trustees for the colleges and universities of Alabama. He is also on the board of trustees of the Alabama Medical Education Consortium, which he helped to found. Bentley was the 2009 recipient of the Christian Coalition of Alabama's Statesmanship Award.
In August 2015, Dianne Bentley filed to divorce Bentley, saying there had been an "irretrievable breakdown" in their marriage and that further attempts at reconciliation were impossible. Records of the divorce case were sealed, per a ruling on August 31, 2015, by County Circuit Judge Elizabeth Hamner. Governor Bentley had appointed Tuscaloosa County Circuit Judge Elizabeth Hamner to the bench and her current position in 2011. The divorce was finalized on September 29, 2015.
Electoral history
References
External links
*
*Blinder, Alan
"Alabama Governor’s Use of Oil Spill Funds for Mansion Draws Criticism"
New York ''Times'', January 11, 2016.
*
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Bentley, Robert
1943 births
20th-century American physicians
21st-century American politicians
Alabama politicians convicted of crimes
American dermatologists
Baptists from Alabama
Republican Party governors of Alabama
Judson College (Alabama)
Living people
Republican Party members of the Alabama House of Representatives
Military personnel from Alabama
People from Columbiana, Alabama
Southern Baptists
United States Air Force Medical Corps officers
University of Alabama School of Medicine alumni