Will report on Ala. gov sex scandal revive impeachment move?

(AP) — A year after Alabama Gov. Robert Bentley's sexually charged phone calls with a younger female aide set off tabloid-like speculation in the Bible-belt state, the state Ethics Commission is preparing to announce whether it believes he broke the law.

If the commission recommends that prosecutors pursue criminal charges of misusing state resources, the Legislature may try to impeach a governor for the first time in Alabama history.

The scandal has tarnished the 74-year-old Baptist deacon, a mild-mannered dermatologist who attracted voters to his longshot Republican primary campaign in 2010 by promising not to accept a salary.

[...] divorced from wife Dianne and living alone in the governor's mansion, he's determined to serve out his second term despite losing popularity.

"The evidence demonstrates the exact opposite: that, in addition to forgoing over $750,000 in salary earned during his service, the Governor has consistently worked to safeguard public funds and otherwise act in the best interests of the State," Athanas wrote via email to the AP.

Some staffers complained she became the only voice in Bentley's ear as he sought political footing by deciding to take down Confederate flags and push to build more prisons.

The ethics commission would make its recommendation to Bentley's replacement for Attorney General Luther Strange, whom Bentley appointed to the U.S. Senate seat vacated when Sen. Jeff Sessions became U.S. attorney general.