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Guy Hunt

First elected in 1986, Guy made history when he became Alabama's first Republican Governor since Reconstruction. It wasn't supposed to happen, though.

Alabama Republicans were so busy trying to hold onto a Senate seat that they figured Guy, a Primitive Baptist preacher and former Amway salesman, was not a serious candidate. But the Democratic nomination battle got so nasty that it ended up in court, with the primary winner getting knocked off the ballot and replaced by his opponent. So, Guy pulled an upset.

But Guy turned out to be a huge disappointment. He was investigated for using state-owned planes to fly around the country preaching the gospel and raising money. Luckily for him, he didn't get charged for that.

Guy often came across as a backwoods yokel. In his 1990 reelection campaign, he tried to defend his endorsement by the Alabama Ku Klux Klan. "An endorsement from someone doesn't mean I accept them. It means they're accepting me." Yeah, Guy, but you accepted their accepting you, and folks can't accept your accepting their accepting you. Know what I mean?

That same year, he attacked his Democratic opponent for supporting the National Education Association, which "endorses letting homosexual teachers stay in the classroom." They stayed there? Your state couldn't pay them enough so they could afford a place to live?

What finally did him in was his sloppy handling of money that didn't belong to him. In 1992 a grand jury indicted him on 13 felony counts for taking $200,000 from his 1987 inaugural fund and putting it to personal use. He spent it on campaign debts, cattle, farm equipment and furniture.

In 1993, he was convicted and forced to resign from office, and in 1994 he began serving a five-year probation. He was also ordered to repay the money he stole and to pay fines totaling over $12,000.

In 1998, he went to court to get an early release from probation. Not only did he not get it, but he got an additional five years tacked on to his sentence. He had been paying as restitution only $100 a month. The judge told him he'd have to repay that $200,000 he owed a whole lot faster and that he ought to get a job.

Get the lead out, Guy. You've got to peddle a lot of Amway crap to crawl out of this hole.