Alabama Democratic Party

Chapman said her consulting firm, Beth Chapman and Associates, receives nearly $50,000 annually from the charity, Court Appointed Special Advocates of Shelby County, and the money for her work as the charity's director comes from fund-raising, not the state. She said there is a legal distinction between the money going to her business rather than to her directly.

"I only have one state salary. I only get money from one state source -- secretary of state," Chapman said Tuesday in an interview with The Associated Press.

Turnham said the organization's publicly available tax returns don't show what money goes toward the pay for the organization's two staff members. But Chapman points out that the tax returns show Stinson's salary is very close to the annual state grant.

Those tax returns, signed by Chapman as director, show the organization operates on approximately $80,000 a year, sometimes more and sometimes less, usually raising enough to cover the payments to Chapman and Stinson and having a few thousand left for operational expenses.

Chapman's work outside state government came up during recent legislative battles over lawmakers who hold jobs at publicly funded schools or government agencies.

One bill, supported by Republican Gov. Bob Riley, would have banned state employees and state contractors from serving in state office, but it died in a House committee. Another bill stalled that would have overridden the State Board of Education's new policy prohibiting employees of Alabama's junior colleges from serving in the Legislature after 2010.