Both men are Republicans, but there a significant distance between them, despite comments about how supportive Riley is being and how many long meetings the men have held to make the transition go smoothly.
The most obvious part of the chasm stems from Riley's support for candidate Bradley Byrne as his successor rather than Bentley, who came from behind (in money and expectations) and won both the GOP runoff and the General Election.
But two other pieces of evidence have presented themselves since the election.
Though Bentley says he gave his blessing to Riley's decision to call a special session on Ethics before he left office, Bentley really had no choice. What could he do other than protest publicly? Bentley says he did not see any of the legislation before the session---despite the claims of cooperation---and now he's told CBS 8* there may be changes to some of the bills once he takes office. One of those could be the new law that prevents AEA member teachers from having their dues withheld from their state paychecks (called The Kill AEA bill by members). Byrne and Riley used AEA as a whipping boy while Bentley accepted campaign contributions from the group and avoided rhetorical attacks.
And then there was Friday's sudden resignation of Republican Alabama Supreme Court Justice Champ Lyons, and the equally fast replacement named by Riley on his last workday in office. What was the hurry? After all, a fellow Republican was taking over on Monday---did the Riley Administration not trust Bentley to name a new justice? Or did Riley just want to appoint his longtime friend Jim Main to the post, and not give Bentley the opportunity to start making his own imprint on the Judiciary?
[* You can watch the entire interview with the Governor-Elect Monday morning at 5:30am on CBS 8 in Montgomery.]
