Building on Airbus momentum

Alabama Gov. Robert Bentley chats with local and state delegates at a reception hosted by officials from Mobile and Baldwin counties during day two of the Paris Air Show. (Courtesy)

(Mobile)

In 2011, during the first year of Gov. Robert Bentley's administration, the governor's wife and his top political adviser flew together on state aircraft six different times.

Dianne Bentley, his now ex-wife, and Rebekah Caldwell Mason, his now ex-political adviser and the highly publicized object of his affection, attended a speech together and traveled on state planes multiple times in the aftermath of the April 27 tornadoes.

In the years since, as Bentley and Mason became closer and the governor's marriage began to crumble, the two women flew separately on state planes often. But from 2012 through last year they shared only one other flight together: to attend the January 2014 funeral of Carl Ardis, the father of the governor's spokeswoman.

Throughout the Bentley administration, Mason flew on state airplanes 52 times, according to state records. Mrs. Bentley flew 218 times. In 2014, when Bentley's family began to question his relationship with Mason, Mrs. Bentley's flights dropped dramatically and Mason's increased.

The flight patterns may not prove the claim, but they do lend credence to those who served in or alongside the administration who say vast amounts of money, executive security effort and state resources were expended to keep the women apart.

The governor's spokeswoman, Jennifer Ardis, said there was "absolutely not" an effort to keep them apart.

Those who have watched the drama unfold since Bentley publicly acknowledged making sexually intimate comments to Mason say the relationship between the two women has long been uncomfortable. Not just for the women, but for those traveling alongside who were put in a position - officially or not - of keeping them out of each other's way. But the significance of the flights is bigger than comfort.

Spencer Collier, the former head of the Alabama Law Enforcement Agency who made the Bentley relationship with Mason public, has said he warned the governor it would be illegal if he used state planes or campaign money to further or cover up an improper relationship. Bentley's office has said he leased campaign aircraft out of an abundance of caution, because he did not want to campaign on the state dime.

It's difficult to track the campaign flights. Bentley's campaign paid thousands to several air companies, chartering flights to take the governor and staff to campaign events. But the charters were not exclusive to the governor. So while flight logs indicate a plane owned by one of the companies visited the same cities on or near the same day as state planes - places like Gulf Shores, Birmingham, New Orleans or Tuscaloosa - it is hard to pinpoint whether the trips were related.

Regardless of whether Bentley was involved in an inappropriate relationship with Mason, his use of the state planes and resources is concerning. Since taking office he or Mrs. Bentley used the state plane 749 times, or a little more often than once every two days. That's more than double the trips famous gubernatorial flyer Fob James took, and it doesn't include dozens of flights Bentley took on aircraft owned by the ALEA. It doesn't count flights on a jet leased by the Alabama Department of Transportation, or the planes leased by his campaign.

That alone should be enough to make Alabamians question this governor.

The Bentleys, on the state dime, made more than 150 trips back and forth to Tuscaloosa on state and ALEA planes. They made more than 50 trips to Gulf Shores, where they owned a beach house.

The governor used planes to fly to multiple Alabama football games, including the BCS National Championship in Miami, the 2012 opener in Dallas and the SEC Championship Game in Atlanta last year, with Jon and Rebekah Mason.

Bentley flew on 11 trips to Auburn, despite the fact you can drive there from Montgomery in less time than it takes to watch an episode of House of Cards. He met with Auburn coaches on two of those trips. Another was to celebrate the Tigers' national championship.

Bentley even flew state planes from Montgomery to Birmingham to hold a press conference announcing the very political endorsement of Ohio Gov. John Kasich.

And once, according to state records, the ALEA helicopter picked Bentley up at a golf resort in Gulf Shores and flew him to an airport 15 miles away.

No wonder Bentley's entire administration is now up in the air. That's where it always has been.