When Colorado Springs City Councilman Bill Murray heard U.S. Senate nominee Roy Moore of Alabama was accused of pursuing young girls, he wasn’t surprised.

Misconduct and complacence in Deep South politics is a significant reason Murray said he left Alabama in the early 1990s, and it’s clear to him nothing has changed.

“I expected something called evolution and it didn’t occur,” said Murray, a staunch Democrat. “Institutionalized issues are still institutionalized.”

The New York Times reported Monday that a fifth woman, Beverly Young Nelson, accused Moore of sexually assaulting her when she was 16 decades ago. Moore has repeatedly denied the allegations from when he was in his 30s involving girls as young as 14, saying they’re meant to damage his campaign.

Moore is a Republican and was twice removed from the state Supreme Court for ethics violations, first for refusing to remove his display of the Ten Commandments from the State Judicial Building rotunda, which he had erected in the middle of the night as a TV crew from a religious channel filmed it. Last year he was removed as state Supreme Court’s chief justice, an elected position, because he refused to allow probate judges in Alabama to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples.

Murray said he believes Moore’s accusers, but also said the reports are likely also politically motivated. He said he wouldn’t vote for Moore “in our lifetime.”

The ongoing story and multiple accusations have drawn mixed reactions from fellow Republicans.

Colorado Sen. Cory Gardner, head of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, said the Senate should vote to expel Moore because he fails to meet the governing body’s ethical and moral requirements, the Times reported.

But Jim Zeigler, Alabama’s state auditor, defended Moore, The Washington Examiner reported.

“Take Joseph and Mary. Mary was a teenager and Joseph was an adult carpenter. They became parents of Jesus,” Zeigler said. “There’s nothing immoral or illegal here. Maybe just a little bit unusual.”

Murray, who said he knows Zeigler personally, called the remarks excuses.

“He’s a jerk,” Murray said. “No thought was put into those (comments).”

“They can justify anything,” he added.

Murray said he moved from New Jersey to Alabama in 1966 to attend the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa. There he met Don Siegelman who would later be elected as Alabama’s governor. And on the school’s debate team he was partnered with Steve Windom, who would later be elected as an Alabama state senator and would serve as lieutenant governor under Siegelman.

At the school students used the term “good ol’ boy” for each other, but for Murray the phrase was: “You aren’t from around here are you, boy?”

University of Alabama representatives, Zeigler and representatives of Moore’s campaign did not immediately respond to messages sent Tuesday seeking to confirm Murray’s claims.

In Alabama Murray said he worked on Siegelman’s first few campaigns where he met George Wallace, who served four terms as Alabama’s governor and now-U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions. He said he met Moore in the ’80s, but was not close to him.

Attending the University of Alabama was a “conduit to political office” back in his college days, Murray said. For him, it was a “conduit for a Yankee to fit in.”

Many were accepted among that crowd if they “could party and keep (their) mouth shut,” Murray said. “People would tell you stories and now, 50 years later, they’re reportable.”

Murray said he moved to Atlanta in 1990, partially due to the incestuous and criminal nature of local politics.

Siegelman was convicted of felony charges including bribery and conspiracy in 2006, he was released from prison earlier this year.

Murray said he hadn’t heard any rumors of sexual misconduct surrounding Moore. However, he anticipates allegations like those because the political scene in Alabama is decades behind the rest of the country.

“There are no surprises,” he said. “That’s the saddest part of the conversation: I expected it.”