Bentley was the fourth Alabama governor to resign from office. He was succeeded by Lieutenant Governor Kay Ivey, who was sworn into office the day Bentley resigned.
Bentley won in a seven-candidate primary and faced Democrat 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 votes—the largest margin recorded for a Republican in an open-seat race in Alabama history.
Bentley was elected to the Alabama House of Representatives in 2002 and served a total of two four-year terms from 2003 to 2010.
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 where he served as a deacon and a Sunday School teacher.
Alabama Gov. Robert Bentley has managed to sideline a key player in the ongoing effort to investigate – and potentially impeach or prosecute – him by appointing the state’s attorney general to succeed Sen. Jeff Sessions in the US Senate.
Alabama code states that in the event of a vacancy for a United States senator, the governor will “forthwith order an election to be held,” so the people of Alabama may choose their next senator .
One of James' supporters, former U.S. Representative Sonny Callahan, endorsed Bentley in the runoff.
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. In 2008, Bentley was elected as a Republican Presidential Delegate for Mike Huckabee.
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 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.
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.
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. At one point, Bentley lived in a house with no electricity or running water.
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 committee member Terry L. Dunn called on Bentley to resign.
Kay Ivey (R). Referred to as the "unexpected governor," Bentley, a retired dermatologist, has said, "Nobody but the Lord and my oldest granddaughter" expected the win. Bentley came in second to Bradley Byrne in the 2010 Republican gubernatorial primary, but went on to defeat him in the runoff.
Robert Julian Bentley (b. February 3, 1943, in Columbiana, Alabama) was the 53rd Governor of Alabama. Bentley, a Republican, took the oath of office on January 17, 2011. He resigned on April 10, 2017, in the wake of an ethics investigation that led to impeachment hearings. He was succeeded by Lt. Gov. Kay Ivey (R).
Bentley fired Collier from his post that same day for allegedly misusing ALEA funds; Collier claimed his dismissal was retaliation for refusing to cover up the affair. Recordings of the governor were published on March 23, 2016, which included comments of a sexual nature made to Mason on a telephone call in 2014.
Two days after he was inaugurated, Bentley stirred up controversy by telling 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.".
Allen Farley (R-McCalla) called on Attorney General Luther Strange 's (R) office to look into allegations that Bentley used state funds to cover up activities related to his divorce and an alleged affair. The alleged improper spending included overtime paid to state troopers on the governor's security detail and use of state aircraft for non-official purposes. Bentley denied misusing state property and called the divorce a private matter. The attorney general's office acknowledged receipt of the letter, but declined to comment on the allegations.
He went on to study chemistry and biology at the University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa before enrolling in The University of Alabama School of Medicine. Bentley completed his residency at Birmingham's Carraway United Methodist Hospital.
In 1969, he joined the United States Air Force and was stationed at Pope AFB near Fayetteville, North Carolina. Upon completion of military service in 1975, Bentley completed a second residency in dermatology before founding his own practice, Alabama Dermatology Associates, in Tuscaloosa.
Robert Bentley was a kindly old grandpa and Sunday-school teacher. Then he got into politics and found that new temptations come with the keys to the governor’s mansion. The Redneck Riviera beckoned. It was a Friday afternoon in early 2014 and Robert Bentley was ready for the weekend.
Rebekah Mason, a political novice, became Robert Bentley's closest confidante—in the office and out. Dave Martin / AP Photo. The irony in Collier's ouster was, as he claimed, that it stemmed from a different political scandal—one that didn't necessarily involve the governor or his furtive relationship.
Collier explained that Bentley's dalliance with Mason was more than just tawdry—it was a threat to the governance of Alabama. “Rebekah Mason has wielded a level of influence over both the governor and state government that I have never seen in all my years of public service,” Collier said.
Ray Lewis, the head of the governor's protective detail, was sitting in the driver's seat. In the back was Spencer Collier , the head of the Alabama Law Enforcement Agency.
Bentley seemed to be a political version of his fellow Alabamian Forrest Gump—blown into office like a feather. He was dubbed “the accidental governor.”. And yet, as time made clear, Bentley's unlikely path to power seemed to precipitate an equally unlikely change in character.