Rebekah Mason

Rebekah Mason
Basic facts
Location:	Tuscaloosa, Ala.
Affiliation:	Republican Party
Education:	•University of Alabama (bachelor's degree, broadcast communications, 1993)

Rebekah Mason is a former journalist and former staffer for Governor of Alabama Robert J. Bentley (R). After working for the governor since 2010, Mason resigned in March 2016 following allegations of an affair and an ethics complaint filed by Alabama State Auditor Jim Zeigler with the Alabama Ethics Commission. Bentley later resigned from office as part of a plea deal in April 2017.

Career

While attending community college, Mason competed in the 1990 Miss Alabama Pageant. She earned a bachelor's degree in broadcast communications from the University of Alabama in 1993. After college, Mason worked in broadcast journalism for several Alabama outlets, such as: "WAAY Huntsville, WDBB Tuscaloosa, WBRC Fox 6 Birmingham and WVUA Tuscaloosa." She "worked as a news director and as news anchor at Tuscaloosa's WDBB and WVUA."

Rebekah Mason married Jon Mason, a fellow journalist, in 1996 and opened an ad agency with him in 2003. The agency was called Caldwell Mason Marketing and JRM Enterprises Inc., and the company ran "'Outdoor Boards' a national outdoors advertising agency."

Political activity

When Robert J. Bentley (R) won the 2010 race to become Governor of Alabama, Rebekah Mason was his campaign press secretary. After the election, she became communications director for the governor. In 2013, Mason left the state payroll to become a spokesperson for Bentley's re-election campaign. She formed RCM Communications, a consulting business, in July of that year. AL.com reported that between the formation of the company in July 2013 and the election in November 2014, Bentley's campaign paid "almost half of the campaign's total consulting expenses" to RCM Communications.

Yellowhammer News called Mason one of the "50 most powerful & influential people in Alabama" in 2015. The Yellowhammer News profile states that from "crafting State of the State Addresses to coordinating external efforts to advance the governor's agenda, Mason is involved in all of it" and that no one "has the governor's ear more than she does." Mason became a senior political advisor for the governor after his re-election. She was not on the state's payroll, but worked for the Alabama Council for Excellent Government, a 501(c)(4) nonprofit organization that supports the governor's agenda.

2016 ethics investigation

See also: Robert Bentley ethics investigation, 2016-2017 and Robert Bentley investigation timeline, 2015-2017

Responding to "allegations by former Alabama Law Enforcement Agency chief Spencer Collier about her relationship with the governor," Mason accused Collier of gender bias. She stated that he would not have "said what he did...about another man." Bentley "admitted to making inappropriate comments but denied having a physical affair with Mason," according to AL.com.

Alabama State Auditor Jim Zeigler filed a report with the Alabama State Ethics Commission seeking an investigation into the alleged affair between Mason and Bentley and stating that Mason should register as a lobbyist since she was being paid by a private entity. Mason resigned from her position as a senior political advisor to Gov. Bentley in March 2016.

Bentley went on to face ethics investigations by the Alabama State Ethics Commission, the House Judiciary Committee, and the Alabama attorney general into allegations that he had misused state funds to cover up an affair with Mason. The House Judiciary Committee began impeachment proceedings against Bentley on April 10, 2017. He resigned from office as part of a plea deal later that afternoon.

See also

• Robert J. Bentley
• Robert Bentley ethics investigation, 2016-2017
• Robert Bentley investigation timeline, 2015-2017
• 501(c)(4)
• Alabama Council for Excellent Government
• Jim Zeigler

External links

• Governor of Alabama's official website