U.S. Sen. Tommy Tuberville, R-Alabama, speaks to a crowd at an Alabama Republican Party fundraiser on Aug. 4, 2023. GOP gubernatorial candidate Ken McFeeters said Monday he plans to file a challenge to Tuberville's candidacy for governor over allegations he has not established residency in Alabama. (Stew Milne for Alabama Reflector)
Republican gubernatorial candidate Ken McFeeters said Monday that he plans to challenge primary opponent U.S. Tommy Tuberville’s candidacy with the Alabama Republican Party.
McFeeters said in a phone interview that he does not believe Tuberville lives in Alabama, rather that he lives in Santa Rosa Beach, Florida.
“If you look at it, he does not live in Alabama. And we the people of Alabama, we’re not stupid,” McFeeters said.
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A message seeking comment from Tuberville’s campaign was left Monday afternoon.
Tuberville has long faced questions about his residency in the state. Tuberville moved to Alabama in 1999 when he started coaching football for Auburn University. He told Alabama Daily News last summer that time contributed to his residency qualification, and has said a homestead exemption claimed on property in Auburn by his wife and son in 2018 is proof of residence. al.com reported in May of last year that Tuberville and his wife voted in Florida in 2018, after the homestead exemption was claimed.
The Alabama Constitution requires candidates for governor and lieutenant governor to be residents of the state for at least seven years.
“The governor and lieutenant governor shall each be at least thirty years of age when elected, and shall have been citizens of the United States ten years and resident citizens of this state at least seven years next before the date of their election,” the Constitution reads.
McFeeters said Monday he has reimbursement records from Tuberville’s trips from D.C. to “home,” which were often to the Destin-Fort Walton Beach Airport, not Auburn or the surrounding area.
“If you look at the reimbursements that Tuberville has filed to the federal government when he gets reimbursed for travel expenses, none of them are to Auburn. Only a couple of flights go to Alabama, but none of them are to Auburn,” McFeeters said. “He’s got a lot of expenses heading down to the Destin airport and taxi expenses to take him to his home in Santa Rosa.”
Jeannie Burniston, communications director for the Alabama GOP, said in an interview Monday afternoon that a candidate’s qualification would only be removed if compelling legal evidence was provided.
“It would have to be something that would meet a legal threshold, proving that that he’s not a resident and that does not meet the requirements as outlined in the in the state constitution,” Burniston said.
Susan Hamill, a law professor at the University of Alabama, said in a statement Monday afternoon that while the language of the state constitution is vague, Alabama’s history and culture supports a consecutive seven-year residency minimum.
“In my opinion, the spirit of the constitution, especially given Alabama’s history and culture, supports an argument that the seven years residency requirement should be consecutive,” she wrote. “Alabama’s culture is suspicious of outsiders and historically most of Alabama’s governors were born and raised in the state, often having descended from generations of Alabamians.”
Hamill also suggested that the McFeeters campaign investigate all other gubernatorial candidates and challenge Tuberville’s residency in court.
“For political reasons (Tuberville has Trump’s support), I would be surprised if the Republican party responded in McFeeters’ favor by declaring Tuberville ineligible,” she wrote.
McFeeters, however, understands the state constitution to mean the candidate must live in the state for seven consecutive years.
“There’s big questions on his residency, and there’s two ways of looking at it,” he said. “If you look at the courts, they’re saying it’s got to be seven years continuous right up to election. I’ve been told by the Alabama Republican Party, though, that they may look at total time.”
Burniston said that any candidate challenged by Friday at 5 p.m. will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis by the party’s candidate committee. There will be a hearing for the accused candidate and the accuser to make their cases before the party has to submit its finalized list of candidates to the Alabama Secretary of State on Feb. 26, Burniston said.
“It’s like a watchdog where we’re making sure that we’re dotting our I’s and crossing our T’s, and that everybody meets the threshold of what it takes to be any elected official,” Burniston said. “Whether it’s U.S. Senate and Governor, down to coroner. We want to make sure that everybody is indeed supposed to be a candidate that has filed to be a candidate.”
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Author: Anna Barrett