Alabama’s Tuberville may be a Florida resident: columnist

10 August 2023

United States Senator Tommy Tuberville (R-Alabama) and his ongoing blockade of military appointments over his opposition to abortion coverage in the Pentagon's healthcare benefits is no longer the only scandal shadowing the freshman lawmaker. On Thursday, Washington Post opinion columnist Glenn Kessler assessed that Tuberville may be a resident of Florida instead of Alabama, based on property files and information on financial disclosure forms.

Last month, Kessler found, "Tuberville sold, for nearly $1.1 million, the last properties that he owned in Alabama, according to real estate records. The properties, known as Tiger Farms LLC, are in Macon and Tallapoosa counties, on the outskirts of Auburn. That same month, he also sold one Florida condo for $850,000 and bought another for $825,000."

Although "Tuberville's office says his primary residence is an Auburn house that records show is owned by his wife and son," Kessler continued, "campaign finance reports and his signature on property documents indicate that his home is actually a $3 million, 4,000-square-foot beach house he has lived in for nearly two decades in Santa Rosa Beach, Fla., located in the Florida Panhandle about 90 miles south of Dothan."

Kessler noted that in Alabama, US Senate candidates need only live in the Yellowhammer State "for one day," compared to "seven years to run for governor," which in 2017 precluded Tuberville from seeking that office because he was technically a resident of Florida.

"In 2018, he voted in Florida in the midterm elections, according to the Birmingham News, but he registered to vote in Alabama on March 28, 2019, a week before announcing his Senate bid," Kessler wrote "For his voter registration address, he listed as his residence a property, appraised at about $300,000, located in Auburn."

But "property records show it is owned by Tuberville's son, who has the same first name but a different middle name, along with the senator's wife," Kessler explained. "The home was purchased in 2017, when the son, generally known as Tucker, was in the process of obtaining an Alabama real estate license. The son now works in New York, according to his LinkedIn page."

While acknowledging during the 2020 Senate race that he was "not an everyday resident of Alabama," Tuberville labeled himself a "carpetbagger of this country," Kessler recalled. But "Tuberville's frequent visits as senator to his home in Santa Rosa Beach can be gleaned through expenditure reports filed with the Federal Election Commission by Tuberville's various campaign organizations and PACs. They show that since Tuberville became a senator, there have been almost monthly expenditures for travel and food in either Santa Rosa Beach or another Florida town, Panama City Beach, which is 50 miles away."

Kessler pointed out that Tuberville "also owns a condominium in Washington that he and his wife purchased for $750,000 in 2021, with a $674,250 mortgage, according to real estate documents."

Tuberville's communications director Steven Stafford clarified to Kessler that "many senators have vacation homes" and that Tuberville goes to Santa Rosa Beach "upon occasion" when he has time. But Kessler's research suggests that Stafford's response "does not match up with documentary record."

Tuberville, Kessler learned, "never owned the house. Tucker Tuberville graduated in May 2016, according to his LinkedIn page, meaning the house in question was purchased — by Tucker Tuberville and his mother — nine months after Tucker graduated from college. Tucker then worked for his father as an assistant football coach at the University of Cincinnati from May to December that year. Tuberville's other son, Troy, did not start at Auburn until 2018 and graduated in 2021; he registered to vote using the same address as his father — this Auburn property."

Kessler closed with a statement that Tuberville gave to ESPN in 2017.

"Six months ago, after 40 years of coaching football, I hung up my whistle and moved to Santa Rosa Beach, Florida, with the white sands and blue water," Tuberville boasted. "What a great place to live."

Kessler's complete editorial is available at this link (subscription required).

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