Can Tommy Tuberville prove his Alabama residency by sharing state tax returns?

This is an opinion column.

Congratulations, Tommy Tuberville! You’re Alabama’s next governor.

Maybe.

Everybody in the state’s political class seems to be accepting it, including those on the fifth stage of grief. That includes other politicians who want the job, political consultants looking for a payday, and lobbyists and their clients struggling to figure out where to put their money.

Even the weary Big Mules seem to think they’ll have to pull your wagon.

They’ve all decided there ain’t no other way. As potential candidates go, you’re unbeatable. Your name recognition is better than the lady in the office now. You’ve got money you can call down from above. (Heck, there are probably Senate Republicans who would help you, just to get you out of their hair.) You’re on good terms with Alabama’s favorite president.

And if anyone has forgotten, you already whipped Jeff Sessions and Doug Jones.

You’re bulletproof.

Maybe.

I’m not so sure, though. You see, unlike the criteria for running for the U.S. Senate, to qualify for Alabama governor, you have to have lived in the state for seven years. And that’s the thing that everyone’s looking at again — where you live.

This has come up before.

When you ran for Senate in 2020, AL.com brought it up. The Washington Post brought it up. Your opponents brought it up.

Don’t forget, it was Jeff Sessions who first called you “Florida Man.”

There was a lot of evidence then that your actual home was at the beach in Florida, not in Alabama.

The deed to your modest Auburn home, which you claimed as your Alabama residence, was in your wife and son’s names. Meanwhile,….

In 2017, you filmed a promo for ESPN where you called Florida your home.

Heck, even on the campaign trail, you all but copped to being “a carpetbagger of this country.”

“I’m not an every-day resident of Alabama,” you said then.

But you got past that because, first, it didn’t bother voters that much, and second, the law said you had to live in the state for only a day before taking office as its senator.

Being governor is different, though..

“The governor and lieutenant governor shall each be at least thirty years of age when elected, and shall have been citizens of the United States ten years and resident citizens of this state at least seven years next before the date of their election,” Alabama law says.

And since your last campaign, some other things have come to light.

You’ve been traveling to Florida an awful lot, often on taxpayers’ dime. Travel records on file with the secretary of the U.S. Senate and your campaign finance disclosures show that you fly there more than you do to Alabama.

Those records show you like to eat there a lot, too. I’m not knocking you for dining out on 30A. (The fried grouper sandwich at Shunk Gulley is delicious.) But dang, man. You’re a millionaire. Can’t you pay for it out of something other than your campaign fund?

And if you’re going to fly back and forth to Florida, can’t you pay for that, too, instead of asking taxpayers to do it?

None of this means you’re not an Alabama resident, though. I know people who have beach houses in Santa Rosa. Heck, one of them let me get married there.

But you don’t just have one house there. You have two. And property records show that when you bought the second one in 2023, you put down the other Florida home as your address on the deed, not the house in Auburn.

Also, you only registered to vote in Alabama in 2019 and last voted in Florida in 2018.

None of this is good for you, and here’s why.

I can fuss as I may about you living in a different state, but inevitably, someone else will, too. Heck, some folks in your party, like state Sen. Sam Givhan, already have.

And next time, that person might be a Democratic candidate for governor.

There’s enough stuff out there to suggest you haven’t lived in Alabama for the last seven years, but if such a person got you into court, they might be able to subpoena other things we haven’t seen yet.

Like your taxes.

Alabama has income taxes.

Florida does not.

I don’t own a home in both of those states, but if I did, it would be really tempting to call the Florida house my official abode, just so I wouldn’t have to pay taxes in Alabama.

You wouldn’t do anything like that, would you? This is an important question, and a question — sooner or later — you’re going to have to answer.

You owe it to Alabamians.

If that’s not enough, then you really owe it to Alabama Republicans, because it would be very embarrassing if they put you on the ballot only for some judge to say you weren’t supposed to be there. Many of those Alabama Supreme Court justices aren’t seeking reelection, so don’t count on home cooking. Especially if it’s not your home.

Also, if you have been an Alabama resident for the last seven years, it’s really important that you have been paying taxes.

Also, if you’ve been voting somewhere where you didn’t live, that’s serious, too. Just ask former Alabama state Rep. David Cole, who recently did a little time for that.

The best thing for you to do right now, coach, is to show us what you filed — in Alabama for each of the last seven years.

If you can do that, then everyone will have to accept you’re an Alabamian. You can give Alabama Republicans peace of mind, and give Alabama Democrats a piece of your mind.

We can all shut up about it — the media, your opponents, Jeff Sessions, the Twitterati. You won’t have to hear it anymore.

If you can do that, there will only be one thing left to say.

Congratulations, governor.

Kyle Whitmire is the Washington watchdog columnist for AL.com and winner of the 2023 Pulitzer Prize. You can follow him on Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, X , Threads and Bluesky.