You might get drawn in to the story of Robert Bentley’s resignation as the governor of Alabama by all the variously sordid and cringeworthy details of his affair with a married staffer and his wife’s discovery of said affair. You might pause to be shocked by his abuse of power in trying to shut the story down. But it turns out Bentley’s affair with Rebekah Mason didn’t just affect the people around him. It contributed to one of the other most notorious recent stories coming out of Alabama politics: the attempt to close driver’s license offices in predominantly black counties.
Mason's role was highlighted in a 131-page report released Friday by the investigator leading impeachment efforts against Gov. Bentley, a report largely focused on the relationship between Mason and Bentley.
The report and exhibits can be found here.
According to that report, which was compiled by lead investigator Jack Sharman, it was Mason who "proposed closing multiple driver's license offices throughout the State" and asked the Alabama Law Enforcement Agency to "put together a plan."
According to Sharman's report, former ALEA head Spencer Collier understood Mason's intentions were to have the plan "rolled out in a way that had limited impact on Government Bentley's political allies."
It does not take an illicit affair for Republicans to try to suppress voting by people of color and other likely Democrats, of course, but it’s striking how this one played out. A Republican governor and the senior staffer he was having an affair with just happened to come up with a plan intended to have “limited impact” on “political allies,” and oh, look, it hurts majority black and majority Democratic counties. Who could have predicted?
And while the driver’s license office closures were not a big political win for Bentley—they were a national story and were ultimately reversed—that sort of attack on democracy should be a bigger scandal and blot on a politician’s name than carrying on a tacky, obvious affair. But that sort of attack on democracy is the Republican Party’s bread and butter.