Story highlights Bob Bentley could be impeached by week's end

State Treasurer Kay Ivey would take over as the Yellowhammer State's next governor

(CNN) Alabama Gov. Bob Bentley -- dubbed the "Luv Guv" after a high-profile affair with a former staffer -- faces impeachment hearings this week. It's possible that he could be gone from the governor's office before even Friday. To help explain what brought Bentley to this point and where things might go next, I reached out to Montgomery Advertiser state government reporter Brian Lyman. Our conversation, conducted via email and lightly edited for flow, is below.

Cillizza: Explain how we got here. How long has this been going on?

Lyman: The Bentley ordeal has gone on since March of last year. But Alabama's leadership crisis has gone on far longer.

Bentley's controversy has fed into that. The governor fired Alabama Law Enforcement Secretary Spencer Collier last March. The next day, Collier called a press conference where he accused Bentley of having an affair with senior political adviser Rebekah Caldwell Mason and of using state resources to pursue it. That led to an ethics complaint and, a few days later, the first impeachment charges filed against an Alabama governor in history.

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