State Rep. Corey Harbison, R-Cullman, made his resignation official Thursday in a letter to House Speaker Nathaniel Ledbetter, R-Rainsville.
The resignation letter is a simple one-sentence formal notification of Harbison’s resignation from the House District 12 seat, dated April 15.
Harbison announced his plans to resign last month in order to spend more time with his family, particularly his young children, and pledged to resign by April 15 to ensure time for a special election.
APR reported Wednesday that Harbison has not attended the legislative session this year and sources say he has been chronically absent in recent sessions as well, although official voter rolls mark him as present.
Despite his pledge, Harbison told APR that he took issues with some logistics of the special election and sources said Harbison threatened to withhold his resignation until August to prevent the special election from moving forward.
“I also don’t want this to sound like I’m being critical of anyone that may want to run for my seat. I believe there’s a lot of interest. I want it to be fair across the board for everyone,” Harbison said. “If they schedule things to where that primary ends up on the same day as each of the city elections, it’s going to give anyone from a city within an advantage. In most elections, a candidate will always win the box in which they vote. That’s understandable because it’s someone from their community. Special elections generally tend to have a low turnout. People running that is from a city will have a bigger turnout because everyone will be going to vote in the city elections too.”
