By Bill Britt
Alabama Political Reporter
MONTGOMERY—Alabama State Representative Jay Love (R-Montgomery) has announced he is resigning from the Alabama Legislature effective August 1. According to a report filed by Kim Chandler at AL.com, Love is leaving his elected position to, “promote education reforms.”
Love, a successful businessman, said he will be “pursuing business opportunities that my public obligations have required me to neglect.”
In June, a campaign-style mailer was sent to voters in Love’s district. The mailer read, “Jay Love Stuff, More Bang for Your Buck!” A play on the adult “toy store” located on Montgomery’s Eastern Boulevard, the card is part of a series of campaign literature published by the Foundation for Education Accountability, P.O. Box 1874, Carrollton, GA 30112. The mailer was a foreshadowing of the blistering campaign that Love would be facing in 2014.
The glossy mailer also insinuates that Love, the Chairman of the powerful House Ways and Means Education Committee, may have used his office for personal gain when he held a fundraiser the night before the passage of the 2013 general fund budget in 2012.
http://www.montgomeryadvertiser.com/article/20120608/NEWS02/306080012/Fundraiser-Love-criticized.
It was reported that Love raised approximately $300,000 at the event. Love said that there was nothing illegal about his fundraising effort during the last days of the 2012. Love told the Alabama Political Reporter in June, “I understand how that perception could be there. I would agree that was bad timing, and I would not do it again in that manner.”
It had been rumored for days that Love was considering resigning his seat rather than face the attacks that would be coming his way in the fall.
Despite all the criticism, Love has been considered by most as an exemplary legislator. As head of the powerful House Ways and Means Education Committee, Love was a trusted lieutenant of Speaker of the House Mike Hubbard.
Hubbard’s choice to replace Love on Ways and Means Education will be telling ranking in the House power elite.
