You're out of your mind. Where do you see the REC in this?
http://www.al.com/news/index.ssf/2014/10/mike_hubbard_indicted_bob_rile.html#incart_big-photoThe indictment of Mike Hubbard today charged that the Alabama Speaker of the House used his office for personal gain and solicited money and services from some of Alabama's biggest political and business names.
The companies:
Craftmaster Printers
The first hints of impropriety surrounding Mike Hubbard involved Craftmaster Printers Inc. in Auburn. In 2010, when Hubbard was chairman of the Alabama Republican Party, the GOP agreed to pay $848,687 to a Florida company, Majority Strategies, for campaign literature and fliers.
Majority Strategies subcontracted the printing to Craftmaster, co-owned by Hubbard and three others, including former Auburn football coach Pat Dye. A state GOP audit in 2012, sought by new party chairman Bill Armistead, disclosed the transaction.
The Auburn Network
Hubbard founded The Auburn Network Inc. in 1994, and built the broadcasting and marketing company into an economic development powerhouse. Once Hubbard was elected to the House, and ascended its leadership ranks, complaints arose that he seemed to be mixing state business and his private business. Two contracts stood out: The Auburn Network's deals to provide consulting work for Southeast Alabama Gas District, a public utility in the Wiregrass area, and for American Pharmacy Cooperative Inc., which was interested in doing business with the state's Medicaid program.
Southeast Alabama Gas District
The Southeast Alabama Gas District is a utility owned by 14 cities to provide natural gas service in southeastern Alabama. For a period in 2012-13, it paid Hubbard's Auburn Network $12,000 monthly "to support marketing efforts, promote the use of natural gas and to identify and deliver economic development prospects for facilities utilizing natural gas." According to Hubbard's office, the utility also paid for his economic development trip to the Paris Air Show as a member of Gov. Robert Bentley's state delegation.
American Pharmacy Cooperative Inc.
Bessemer-based American Pharmacy Cooperative Inc. (APCI) is a group-purchasing organization that represents independent pharmacists in 23 states. Earlier this year, Greg Wren, a House member from Montgomery, pleaded guilty to ethics crimes stemming from his attempt to add language to the state General Fund budget that would have made APCI the sole supplier of drugs for Alabama Medicaid patients. His plea agreement said, in part: "The speaker of the House endorsed the co-op exclusive language and directed staff to add it to Medicaid's section of the General Fund budget."
The people:
Billy Canary
As president and CEO of the Business Council of Alabama, Canary is considered one of the power elites in Alabama politics. The BCA's political action committee, Progress PAC, gives heavily to state candidates. Hubbard credits bounteous donations from Canary and the BCA for fueling the Republican takeover of the Legislature in 2010. Hubbard is charged with soliciting or receiving assistance for Auburn Network from Canary.
Bob Riley
Riley served as governor from 2003 to 2011. Soon afterward, Riley, with help from Hubbard and state Senate President Pro Tem Del Marsh, set up the Alabama 14 political action committee, with a goal to elect truly conservative Republicans. Riley's daughter, Birmingham lawyer Minda Riley, headed up initial fundraising for the PAC, which this year received contributions topping $670,000.
The PAC's activities touched off tension in the state Republican Party, and put Hubbard and Marsh at odds with the party's new chairman, Bill Armistead. Hubbard is charged with soliciting assistance from both Bob Riley and his daughter, Minda Riley Campbell. He allegedly solicited or received assistance in gaining clients for Auburn Network from Bob Riley, and consulting work from Campbell.
Rob Burton
Burton, CEO of Hoar Construction Co., was named by the Birmingham Business Journal this year as one of the city's "Most Influential Executives." Hoar ranks among Alabama's construction-industry giants, shouldering notable projects such as the sprawling Airbus plant in Mobile. In the past two years, Hoar contributed $20,000 to Bob Riley's Alabama 2014 political action committee. Hubbard is charged with soliciting or receiving a thing of value from Burton, in the form of a $150,000 investment in Craftmaster.
Will Brooke
Brooke is the executive vice president of Harbert Management Corp. and the former chairman of the Business Council of Alabama and its Progress PAC political action committee. He has said that he and his wife have given more than $400,000 in personal donations to political candidates.
Although long active in Alabama politics, Brooke was relatively unknown to the public until he ran this year for Alabama's 6th Congressional District seat to succeed Spencer Bachus. In his unsuccessful campaign, Brooke gained attention for an advertisement showing him shooting a copy of President Obama's health care act and tossing it into a wood chipper. Hubbard is charged with soliciting or receiving a thing of value from Brooke, in the form of a $150,000 investment in Craftmaster. He also is charged with soliciting Brooke, when he was a lobbyist and board member for the Business Council of Alabama, for assistance in gaining clients for the Auburn Network.
James Holbrook Jr.
Holbrook is the former CEO of Sterne Agee Group Inc., a Birmingham-based investment bank, where he oversaw an aggressive expansion that involved numerous domestic and international acquisitions. The Sterne Agee board fired him earlier this year, after litigation by a former chief financial officer at the bank alleged that Holbrook misused company resources for private purposes.
At the same time that Sterne Agee fired Holbrook, it sued its auditing firm, maintaining that the firm misstated shareholder equity. Bloomberg news service has reported that the U.S. Department of Justice and the U.S. Department of the Treasury were investigating Holbrook. Hubbard is charged with soliciting or receiving a thing of value from Holbrook, in the form of a $150,000 investment in Craftmaster.
Jimmy Rane
Rane is the CEO and chairman of the board at Great Southern Wood Preserving Inc. in Abbeville. Alabamians know him as the "Yella Fella" from his company's YellaWood TV spots. Rane is a member of the Auburn University board of trustees and is a longtime Auburn athletics booster.
Rane has been a Hubbard campaign donor. During the dedication of the Mike Hubbard Center for Advanced Science at Auburn University last year, Rane lauded Hubbard and sought to fend off any Hubbard critics. "If a fistfight breaks out, give me a call," Rane said. Hubbard is charged with soliciting or receiving a thing of value from Rane, a $150,000 investment in Craftmaster.
Robert Abrams
Abrams is a New York businessman and inventor and principal in CV Holdings LLC. His holdings include two businesses in Auburn - Capitol Cups and SiO2 Medical Products. Hubbard is charged with several counts of corruption in connection with Abrams, including lobbying the Commerce Department and the governor's office on Abrams' behalf, and other charges.
Dax Swatek
Swatek, a political operative and partner of the lobbying group Swatek, Azbell, Howe & Ross, is a longtime adviser to Hubbard and a campaign consultant to former Gov. Bob Riley. He was heavily involved in advising Hubbard on the strategy that helped Republicans take control of the Legislature in 2010. The indictment alleges Hubbard solicited something of value from Swatek.
All Auburn. All the time.
EDIT - Also interesting, James Holdbrook, Jr. (according to
http://uanews.ua.edu/2012/05/five-new-inductees-named-for-alabama-business-hall-of-fame/) is a big time Alabama guy. Nothing mentioned in the article about that.
But Jimmy Rane? HE'S AN AUBURN BOOSTER!
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