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Ed Henry Enters U.S. Senate Race Against Luther Strange
By Donald V. Watkins
©Copyrighted and Published (via Facebook) on April 20, 2017
©Copyrighted and Published (via Facebook) on April 20, 2017
A year ago, State Rep. Ed Henry (R-Hartselle) was leading an effort to impeach former Alabama governor Robert Bentley at a time when most of the state's lawmakers thought Bentley was invincible. Fellow legislators mocked Henry behind his back and believed he was committing political suicide by attempting to rid the state of Bentley's public corruption.
Against all odds, Ed Henry persevered and kept the impeachment movement alive and growing. Something in Henry would not allow him to look away while a sitting governor used tax dollars, campaign funds, and "dark money" to carry on and hide an illicit love affair with a married "senior political adviser" who happened to be the wife of a gubernatorial department head.
Henry's "David" versus "Goliath" battle against Bentley ended on April 10, 2017, with Bentley's forced resignation. Working with a bipartisan coalition of House members, Ed Henry had finally liberated Alabamians from Bentley's tyrannical grip.
After Governor Kay Ivey nullified a political deal between Bentley and Luther Strange to delay the special election for the U.S. senate seat until 2018, Rep. Henry declared his candidacy for the seat. Under Ivey's new proclamation, Strange, Henry and other interested candidates must run for the office in a specially-set primary election on August 15, 2017, and a general election on December 12, 2017.
Bentley appointed Strange to fill the seat vacated by former senator Jeff Sessions in February. Strange was Alabama's attorney general at the time.
In November, Strange asked state legislators to suspend the impeachment proceedings launched by Rep. Henry because the House's impeachment inquiry supposedly interfered with Strange's own criminal investigation. In December, Strange 'interviewed" with Bentley, who was the "subject" or "target" of an ongoing criminal investigation, to seek Bentley's appointment to the senate seat. After the two men met and conferred about the appointment, Strange floored everybody when he claimed -- for the first time -- that the Attorney General's office was not investigating Bentley. After this shocking disclaimer, Strange gleefully accepted the senate appointment from Bentley.
Days later, Steve Marshall, the newly appointed Alabama Attorney General, tacitly confirmed that Bentley was, indeed, the "subject" or "target" of a criminal investigation led by the Attorney General's office.
The Legislature promptly resumed its impeachment proceedings and, on April 8, 2017, released a 131-page House Judicial Committee Impeachment Report that detailed Bentley's public corruption and ethics violations.
On April 5, 2017, the Alabama Ethics Commission found that Bentley had committed four felony ethics violations and referred the matter to state prosecutors. Bentley quickly negotiated a "sweetheart" plea deal with Marshall that allowed the governor to plead guilty to two misdemeanor ethics charges, pay a small fine, and resign.
Alabamians are livid that a quid pro quo deal was struck between Bentley and Strange for the senate seat. They are thirsty for justice. After the Impeachment Report was released, it was obvious that Luther Strange had agreed to "fix" Robert Bentley's pending criminal case in exchange for the senate appointment and for Bentley's issuance of a proclamation delaying the mandatory special election until the regular 2018 election cycle.
Pro-Bentley legislators, who initially tried to block the impeachment effort, now regard Ed Henry as a courageous leader. Even though Bentley punished House District #9 constituents because of Henry's impeachment efforts, the two-term lawmaker never wavered in his commitment to make state government more transparent, accountable, and ethical.
Now, Ed Henry is on a mission to end Luther Strange's joyride in the senate seat Bentley gave him two months ago.
There will be likely other well-known candidates in the race against Strange. Unlike Rep. Ed Henry, not one of these candidates has put it all on the line to rid Alabama of Robert Bentley's widespread public corruption. Unlike Henry, not one of them confronted Robert Bentley about his public corruption while the gubernatorial crime spree was in progress. To the contrary, most of them cuddled Bentley and Rebekah Mason during their crime spree.
The race between Ed Henry and Luther Strange is shaping up as a classic battle of "good" versus "evil".
Alabamians will ultimately decide which one wins.
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