A year of crisis: Top Alabama political stories of 2016

Dec. 27--It was a year of crisis for Alabama's state government.

Ongoing problems with revenue very nearly dragged the state's Medicaid system -- critical to health care in the state -- down to an uncertain future. Violence in the state's overcrowded and underfunded prisons escalated.

The state's response to those issues got bogged down in scandal that consumed Alabama government. Leaders in all three branches of government faced removal or the threat of removal during the year, making it much harder to find solutions.

Most of the state's problems have roots that predated 2016. But like a well-anchored dandelion turning into a seed head, the issues took on a new character and spread out of their usual areas. Legislators in 2017 may find themselves struggling to address problems that appear to be growing quickly.

10. Finance Department questions

The state Finance Department went through rough weather in 2016. In January, Acting Finance Director Bill Newton accepted responsibility for the flawed implementation of a payment system that left many vendors waiting months for payment. In June, Gov. Robert Bentley fired Chief Information Officer James Nolin and suspended Assistant Finance Director Rex McDowell over what he described as contract employees having improper access to resources supporting the Alabama Law Enforcement Agency and the state's Criminal Justice Information System. Bentley said the moves were "potentially criminal" in nature, although to date no charges have been filed.

Andrew Skier, an attorney for Nolin said Bentley's office never gave a reason for his termination. McDowell was reinstated in early August by Newton. Bentley initially countermanded that reinstatement, but later reinstated McDowell with restrictions on his access to criminal justice information. McDowell's pay was not interrupted.

Bentley appointed Clinton Carter finance director in the fall; Newton returned to his role as assistant finance director. The FBI completed an audit of the department requested by Bentley this fall; its findings have not yet become public.

9. State lottery plans fail

Alabama is one of a handful of states that does not have a state lottery. For the future, it appears it will remain that way.

Long touted as a way to raise much-needed revenue for the General Fund (see No. 4 below), the proposal has run into objections from legislators opposed to gambling on moral grounds, and those who fear it may give an advantage to Poarch Band of Creek Indian gaming operations, at the expense of dogtracks in the state.

Lottery bills introduced during the regular session failed to move beyond the committee stage. In July, Gov. Robert Bentley called the Legislature into session to allow a vote on a lottery proposal, which would have put most of the revenue generated in the General Fund.

The legislation -- a constitutional amendment that would have required voter approval -- came within a step of legislative passage, but fell apart in a dispute over the bill's definition of a lottery, which restricted the games to paper tickets. Senate Democrats feared that would allow the Poarch Band, who operate under federal law, to dominate the market on slot machines at the expense of dogtracks, key employers in many districts. A separate fight erupted over the timing of the election for lottery, if it was approved.

A lottery will likely continue to attract attention from legislators, but the odds against remain large.

8. Scramble for the Senate

With U.S. Sen. Jeff Sessions likely to become attorney general in President-elect Donald Trump's administration, jockeying for his seat has begun. Alabama Attorney General Luther Strange has declared his candidacy should Sessions win confirmation from the U.S. Senate. Other state politicians are considering runs as well.

Bentley will appoint Sessions' successor and set a date for the next election. The governor has sent surveys to the state Republican Executive Committee asking about the preference to succeed Sessions. The governor is also conducting interviews of potential appointees and says he is looking for individuals who will help carry out Trump's agenda. Sessions' successor would have to defend the seat in a special election; the winner of that race would serve the remainder of the term, which expires in 2020.

7. School superintendent selection creates controversy

Alabama State Schools Superintendent Tommy Bice stepped down in March, setting off a bumpy and controversial search for his replacement that led to leaks of department emails, a legislative investigation and sharp criticisms between State Board of Education members.

In July, members of the Alabama State Board of Education received anonymous packages accusing Jefferson County Schools Superintendent Craig Pouncey, a leading candidate for the job, of improperly using employees to help him finish a dissertation while he was a State Department of Education official. Pouncey denied the charges, as did two employees alleged to have helped him.

But the Alabama Ethics Commission -- which typically does not probe anonymous complaints -- obtained a copy of the accusations after board member Mary Scott Hunter told them of its existence. In August, the board narrowly voted to give the job to Michael Sentance, a former Massachusetts Secretary of Education.

The leak of emails led to an investigation by a legislative committee. Other Board members who appeared before a legislative committee investigating the leak said they disregarded anonymous complaints. Hunter told the committee in November that she might have handled it differently in retrospect but said at the time she felt the allegations were serious.

6. Prison overcrowding boils over

Alabama's overcrowded and increasingly understaffed prisons saw a slight decrease in their population in 2016, but violence ran rampant throughout the year. Riots erupted at Holman Correctional Facility in March that led to the stabbing of two officers at the facility, including Warden Carter Davenport. Two inmates were killed at the Elmore County Correctional Facility this year.

To address the situation, Alabama Department of Corrections Commissioner Jeff Dunn proposed an $800 million construction plan that would erect three 4,000-bed men's facilities, a new 1,200-bed women's facility and close all but two existing prisons.

Dunn, backed by Bentley, argued new facilities were the only way to improve conditions in the state's correctional system. But the plan faltered amid questions over the cost; the proposed method of bidding and the effect the closing of rural prisons might have on communities that depend on prisons for economic reasons. Corrections experts also questioned the scale of the facilities. A scaled-back version of the bill made it out of the Alabama Senate on the last night of the session, but was not taken up by the House amid concerns about changes and a threatened filibuster that might have killed other bills.

Bentley plans to revive the prison construction plan in 2017, calling it his "No. 1" priority moving forward.

5. Executions -- and controversies -- resume

The state of Alabama attempted to execute four inmates this year. Only two executions went through.

In January, the state executed Christopher Brooks for the 1992 rape, robbery, and murder of Jo Deann Campbell. It was the first execution carried out by the state in more than two-and-a-half years and the first under a new protocol that used midazolam, a sedative, to render the condemned unconscious. In December, Alabama executed Ronald Smith for the 1994 murder of convenience store clerk Casey Wilson.

While Brooks showed no visible signs of distress during his execution, witnesses said Smith gasped and coughed for 13 minutes and clenched his fists. The distress was similar to those reported in two executions in 2014 involving the use of midazolam, which critics say cannot keep a condemned inmate unconscious during an execution. The Alabama Department of Corrections said it had no plans to review its protocol following Smith's execution.

The courts blocked two other executions. Vernon Madison, scheduled to die in May for the 1985 murder of Mobile police officer Julius Schulte, saw his execution blocked over concerns that a series of strokes left Madison incompetent and unable to understand the reason for his execution. The U.S. Supreme Court stopped the execution of Thomas Arthur in November over his arguments that he should be allowed to argue for another method of execution for the 1982 murder-for-hire of Troy Wicker.

Arthur also challenged his death sentence on the grounds that the jury that voted for it was not unanimous. The jury in Smith's case voted 7 to 5 to give him life in prison, but the trial judge later overrode it and imposed a death sentence. The nation's high court refused to stop Smith's execution.

Alabama is the last state that allows judges to override jury sentences of death.

4. Medicaid funding woes persist

Once more unto the brink.

The Alabama Medicaid Agency provides insurance to over 1 million Alabamians, more than half of them children, and plays a key role in keeping the state's hospitals and doctors' offices open. The agency received $700 million in state funds in the General Fund budget approved in April. That was $85 million less than Medicaid said it needed to maintain services. Legislators, expressing frustration at cost growth in the program, overrode Bentley's veto of the General Fund, saying there was no will to create new revenues for Medicaid or transfer funds to boost it.

In response, the agency announced in July it would cut doctors' reimbursements due to the lack of funds. The move led to layoffs in some practices and reduced services. In a special session later that summer, the Legislature voted to use a part of Alabama's share of BP settlement funds over the 2010 Gulf oil spill to plug the gap in the program and provide $105 million for Medicaid in 2018. But the funding issues are not likely to go away in the perpetually-troubled General Fund.

3. Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moore removed from office

Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moore never hides his socially conservative views. But in transmitting them to probate judges at the beginning of 2016, he set in motion a process that may have cost him his job.

In a Jan. 6 administrative order, the chief justice told probate judges they had a "ministerial duty" to not issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples. Moore cited a pending case challenging same-sex marriage before the Alabama Supreme Court, brought by the Alabama Policy Institute (API) and the Alabama Citizens Action Program (ALCAP), both opposed to same-sex marriage.

The order came despite the U.S. Supreme Court striking down bans on same-sex marriage in Obergefell v. Hodges in 2015 and an 11th Circuit ruling in October of that year that said Obergefell abrogated the API case. Probate judges mostly ignored Moore's order, but the Southern Poverty Law Center, which supports LGBT rights, added it to an outstanding ethics complaint against the chief justice.

The Judicial Inquiry Commission in May charged Moore with violations of the Canons of Judicial Conduct, which led to his suspension. Moore never disavowed the order but argued that it aimed to provide guidance to judges over what the chief justice insisted was a pending case before the state's high court. The Court of Judiciary disagreed, suspending Moore for the rest of his term, which runs through January 2019. The chief justice is appealing the ruling.

Justice Lyn Stuart has served as acting chief justice since May. Bentley has indicated he will allow the Supreme Court to operate with eight justices for the foreseeable future.

2. Gov. Robert Bentley faces impeachment drive

For a day, the story was the governor sacking his chief law enforcement officer. For the rest of 2016, the governor was the story.

Bentley fired Alabama Law Enforcement Agency Secretary Spencer Collier on March 22, claiming that an internal audit had found numerous issues at ALEA, "including possible misuse of state funds." The following day, Collier held a press conference in which he accused Bentley of having an affair with Rebekah Mason, a married staffer, while Bentley was married to his now ex-wife. Collier also accused Bentley of using state resources to pursue the affair and of attempting to stop Collier from signing an affidavit in the criminal probe of House Speaker Mike Hubbard, R-Auburn.

Audio of Bentley making suggestive comments on a phone conversation later surfaced. Mason stepped down as Bentley's adviser later in March, but both she and Bentley denied having a "physical affair."

Collier's accusations formed the basis of a drive in the Alabama House of Representatives to impeach Bentley. The House Judiciary Committee launched an investigation into Collier's accusations, clashing with attorneys for the governor who accused the committee of overstepping its bounds. The investigation came to an abrupt halt in November after the Alabama attorney general's office said the committee's investigation may intersect with other investigations. The House committee's probe is officially suspended.

Collier sued Bentley, Mason and ALEA Secretary Stan Stabler in April. The attorney general's office said in October a Montgomery County grand jury found no evidence of criminal wrongdoing by Collier during his time as ALEA's head, and did not file charges.

1. Alabama House Speaker Mike Hubbard convicted on ethics charges

Alabama House Speaker Mike Hubbard helped engineer the Republican takeover of the Alabama Legislature in 2010 and, after winning election as speaker, became one of the most powerful individuals in state government, with a major voice in budgets and legislation. That ended on June 10, when a Lee County jury convicted Hubbard on 12 felony ethics charges, leading to his automatic removal from office.

Jurors found the Auburn Republican guilty of soliciting loans for a business from lobbyists or those who hire them; of using his office to secure consulting contracts; of using a staffer to work for a client and of voting for a budget that could have benefited a client. In July, Lee County Circuit Judge Jacob Walker sentenced Hubbard to four years in prison. Hubbard has appealed the convictions, and his defense attorneys argue in part that the jury relied on a broad interpretation of the state's ethics law to secure the convictions. In August, the House of Representatives elected Rep. Mac McCutcheon, R-Monrovia, the former chair of the Rules Committee, to succeed Hubbard.

Hubbard's legal ordeal cast a shadow over the 2015 and 2016 sessions of the Legislature. The indictment, combined with growing experience in the House caucus, made it harder for the lower chamber to pass General Fund budgets with adequate funding for state services, particularly Medicaid, which serves as the backbone of health care in the state. The speaker's convictions also raised questions on how the law treats those who hire lobbyists, known as principals. The Alabama Ethics Commission earlier this month withdrew an opinion that provided a definition of a principal in the face of opposition from business groups and nonprofits.

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