During a Monday interview on the “Dale Jackson Show,” state Rep. Mike Ball (R-Madison) discussed the attempted “October Surprise” that has been orchestrated against Governor Kay Ivey, with Ball explaining the political bias of the individuals making the now-refuted allegations over her health.
Last week, Democratic gubernatorial nominee and Tuscaloosa Mayor Walt Maddox’s longtime friend Spencer Collier kicked things off in an article by the left-leaning Alabama Political Reporter (APR). Collier was Secretary of the Alabama Law Enforcement Agency (ALEA) in Governor Robert Bentley’s cabinet before being fired.
Now, Collier’s former chief of staff at ALEA, John Thomas “J.T.” Jenkins, is backing up Collier’s allegations, which have already been refuted by Ivey’s doctor and public records.
Ball explained that the reason for Jenkins backing up Collier is simple – Jenkins is Collier’s “crony.”
When it comes to Collier himself, Ball, who helped lead the impeachment effort against Bentley, also shared that he knows a lot more than the media outlets who view Collier as some kind of “hero.”
“Spencer Collier has been actually a villain throughout this. He gets credit for being a hero because he blew the whistle on Bentley, but he didn’t do that … until he got caught with his hand in a cookie jar … and wound up getting fired,” Ball outlined.
He added, “I will tell you, if Bentley did anything right, and you know I originated the impeachment, I have no use for Bentley’s foolishness, [it was] firing Collier.”
Ball then detailed how Collier was barely even going into work as the head of ALEA, yet he was filling out compensation forms like he went to work five full days a week. The state representative from the Huntsville area added that Collier had committed “multiple firing offenses” during his tenure that went unpunished, with Ball suggesting grand jury actions could have been taken against him, too.
The one who was picking up the slack for Collier in his practical and literal absence was Jenkins. Now, Ball thinks that Collier’s former chief of staff is back once again trying to clean up Collier’s mess.
“He was tight with Spencer Collier, he’s a – I guess we can use the term – crony. But he was close friends and associates with Spencer Collier, and while Spencer Collier was laying at home doing nothing, he was for all intents and purposes … running the show… he was covering for Collier,” Ball advised.
He added, “When the whole story comes out…[T]here’s layers and layers of evidence that Collier is in the middle of political manipulations.”
Ball then said he did not know if Maddox is pushing the allegations because he does not know any better or whether he knows the truth about Collier and just does not care.
“I don’t know how much of the rest of this crap Mayor Maddox and his campaign know about, the rest of this stuff,” Ball said. “If they did know all of this, they would probably realize the potential for this to blow up in their face.”
Ball added that Collier could be angling for a position in Maddox’s administration, and if Collier gets a job, Jenkins very well could have a government job again in his own right.
Another motive that has been speculated about by many political observers, including Ball, is that Collier is angry that the state of Alabama, under Ivey’s administration, is paying for legal bills to defend against a termination suit by Collier.
In APR’s article on Monday, Collier seemed to admit this “vindictive” motive publicly.
“[Ivey] instructed law enforcement to lie and then covered the issue up… sounds just like Bentley,” Collier claimed. “Bentley was briefed [about Colorado] and knows everything ——sounds like a good reason to pay his legal bills.”
Sean Ross is a staff writer for Yellowhammer News. You can follow him on Twitter @sean_yhn
