A year ago, all of Alabama’s three most powerful public officials were under investigation for a variety of misdeeds. Today, two of those public officials are gone, and the third is in the process of negotiating his exit in exchange for a lighter punishment.

Legislators and lobbyists walking the halls of the Alabama State Capitol are reluctant to talk too much: Rumors are spreading that at least some of their colleagues might be wearing wires in connection with one of the at least four grand juries investigating impropriety.

“We have a very traditional political culture, which means that the people don’t trust government, and they don’t have high expectations of politicians,” said Glen Browder, a former Democratic member of Congress from Alabama who teaches political science at Jacksonville State University. “They just expect politicians to pad their own pockets, and we seem to have a history of politicians padding their own pockets.”

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The latest scandal to cost a politician his job involves Gov. Robert Bentley (R), who tearfully admitted last year to an affair with a top aide. An exhaustive 130-page report compiled for the state House Judiciary Committee outlined the salacious nature of that affair, Bentley’s ham-fisted efforts to keep it quiet and his repeated use of state officials to cover it up.

The state ethics board last week found probable cause that Bentley had violated rules. The legislature on Monday began impeachment hearings, the first time they have ever begun the formal process of removing a governor.

Allies of Lt. Gov. Kay Ivey (R) are already preparing to take over the governor’s mansion if and when Bentley quits.

Bentley’s onetime ally, former state House Speaker Mike Hubbard (R), left office last year after being convicted of 12 felony corruption charges. He is appealing his four-year jail sentence. Hubbard had been reelected to his leadership post in 2015, even after he was indicted, with only one dissenting vote.

And Roy Moore, the chief justice of the state Supreme Court, has been suspended for the remainder of his term for encouraging lower court judges to ignore a U.S. Supreme Court ruling legalizing same-sex marriage. It is the second time Moore has been booted from the top court for violating orders; in 2003, he was removed from office after refusing to move a monument to the Ten Commandments from the state judicial building.

Those three join a long list of Alabama elected officials convicted of corruption charges over the years, a list that state political experts say speaks to the culture of corruption in Montgomery. Two of Bentley’s five predecessors — Govs. Guy Hunt (R) and Don Siegelman (D) — served jail terms. Siegelman only got out of jail in February. The lobbyist convicted of corruption Jack Abramoff helped steer $20 million to a campaign against expanded gambling in Alabama on behalf of the Native American tribe he later admitted defrauding.

“We always had Louisiana to be more corrupt than us,” said Steve Flowers, an Alabama political analyst. “We’re making Louisiana look like pikers.”

For decades, the state’s notorious good-ol’-boy network of political insiders has risen and fallen on the fortunes of prosecutors, who hunt legislators who openly solicit bribes or succumb to the allure of using power for personal gain.

In 2014, state Rep. Greg Wren (R) pleaded guilty to ethics charges after providing confidential documents to a medical company in 2014, a case related to the Hubbard investigation. Two years earlier, state Rep. Terry Spicer (D) admitted to accepting bribes while in office, including $22,000 in free concert tickets.

In 2010, the U.S. Justice Department indicted four sitting state senators — two Democrats and two Republicans — for accepting bribes from the state’s largest casino operator and several lobbyists. The year before, a state senator was convicted on 48 counts of money laundering.

“There is a pay-to-play mentality” in Montgomery, a prominent lobbyist told The Hill. “It’s a general pattern of corruption.”

“In the history of our state, we’ve always had problems with white-collar crimes,” another top state Republican said. “Alabama has a history of airing its dirty laundry in public.”

Even in the annals of public corruption, the investigation into Bentley — a devout Christian who met his future paramour while teaching an adult Sunday school class — stands out.

In phone calls recorded by Bentley’s wife of 50 years and released to the media, Bentley is heard describing sexual fantasies with his lover, who was also his top political aide. Bentley allegedly threatened his own staffers, according to the House Judiciary Committee report, and even fired the head of the Alabama Law Enforcement Agency to keep the affair secret. At one point, Bentley answered a hotel room door in nothing but his boxers, expecting his aide; instead, he was met by hotel staff.

During the inquiry, as many as five different state agencies and the Federal Bureau of Investigation were looking into the matter. Then-Attorney General Luther Strange (R) asked the state House to pause its inquiry last year, days before Election Day, because his office was investigating as well; Bentley later appointed Strange to the U.S. Senate seat left vacant when Jeff Sessions Jefferson (Jeff) Beauregard SessionsTrump's policies on refugees are as simple as ABCs Ocasio-Cortez, Velázquez call for convention to decide Puerto Rico status White House officials voted by show of hands on 2018 family separations: report MORE became attorney general in the Trump administration.

But there are indications that other investigations are ongoing, unrelated to Bentley.

“There are rumors of several members of the House of Representatives [who] are wired, but that has nothing to do with the governor’s administration,” the lobbyist said.

State lawmakers are closely watching a grand jury investigation into the Birmingham Water Works Board. Though the scope of the investigation is secret, local reports suggest the panel is looking into questionable contracts awarded by the board. Some in Montgomery believe as many as 10 legislators may be targeted in the inquiry.

“It’s a heck of a soap opera,” Flowers said.