Robert J. Bentley
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 following his arrest after a sex scandal involving a political aide.[1][2] A member of the Republican Party, Bentley was elected governor in 2010 and re-elected in 2014.
For other people named Robert Bentley, see Robert Bentley (disambiguation).
Robert J. Bentley
Kay Ivey
Tim Parker
4
United States
1969–1975
Born in Columbiana, Alabama, Bentley earned his M.D. from the University of Alabama School of Medicine in 1968 and then
served in the United States Air Force as a medical officer at Pope Air Force Base 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.
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 Ron Sparks, the outgoing Alabama Commissioner of Agriculture, in the general election.[3] Bentley received just over 58% of the statewide vote and won by a margin of over 230,000 votes – the largest margin recorded for a Republican in an open-seat race in Alabama history.[4] In 2014, 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 filed an impeachment resolution against Bentley in the State Legislature, in connection with allegations that Bentley engaged in an extramarital affair with a female political adviser from Tuscaloosa.[5] Bentley has admitted to making inappropriate remarks toward the woman, but denied having a physical affair.[6] On July 7, 2016, the House Judiciary Committee named a special counsel to lead an impeachment inquiry against the governor.[7] On April 5, 2017, the Ethics Commission found probable cause that Bentley violated both ethics and campaign finance laws.[8]
Bentley tendered his immediate resignation as Governor of Alabama on April 10, 2017, after pleading guilty to two misdemeanor charges related to campaign finance 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.[9] 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.[10][11]
Early life, education, and Air Force service[edit]
Bentley is a native of Columbiana, Alabama, 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.[12] At one point, Bentley lived in a house with no electricity or running water.[12]
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.[13]
After graduating from Shelby County High School at the top of his class, Bentley enrolled at the University of Alabama. While at Alabama, Bentley majored in Chemistry and Biology and graduated with his Bachelor of Science degree in three years.[13]
After graduating from UA, he began his studies at The University of Alabama School of Medicine. 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.[14]
Bentley joined the United States Air Force in 1969 as a captain.[15] He served as a general medical officer at Pope Air Force Base in Fayetteville, North Carolina.[15] While there, he served as an interim hospital commander for a time.[15]
Dermatologist career[edit]
Following his military service, Bentley began a three-year residency at the University of Alabama in dermatology. He then opened his dermatology practice in Tuscaloosa in 2019.[16] 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.[14] 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.[13] Bentley is a member of the American Academy of Dermatology and the Medical Association of Alabama.
Alabama House of Representatives[edit]
Elections[edit]
In 1998, Bentley ran for the Alabama State Senate as a Republican against incumbent Democrat Phil Poole, losing by fifty-eight votes.[17]
In 2002 Bentley was elected to the Alabama State House of Representatives from Tuscaloosa County with almost 65% of the vote.[14] In 2006 Bentley ran unopposed for re-election to the State House.
Tenure[edit]
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.[14]
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.[18]
Bentley is opposed to increasing taxes. He has signed the No New Taxes Pledge by the Americans for Tax Reform.[19]
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 on April 22.[20]
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.[13][14] For the United States presidential election in 2016, Bentley endorsed fellow governor John Kasich.[21]
Committee assignments[edit]
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.[22]
Personal life[edit]
Bentley and his former wife Dianne have four sons, six granddaughters, and a grandson. He was an active member of First Baptist Church Tuscaloosa 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".[62][63]
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.[14] Bentley was the 2009 recipient of the Christian Coalition of Alabama's Statesmanship Award.[64]
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.[65] Records of the divorce case were sealed, per a ruling on August 31, 2015, by County Circuit Judge Elizabeth Hamner.[66] Governor Bentley had appointed Tuscaloosa County Circuit Judge Elizabeth Hamner to the bench and her current position in 2011.[67] The divorce was finalized on September 29, 2015.[68]