GOP Chooses Ex-School Official To Replace Turner

TIPTON, Ind. (AP) — A former central Indiana school superintendent will serve the two-year term of former state Rep. Eric Turner, who resigned last month after being the subject of a state ethics investigation.

The Herald Bulletin reports Republican Party precinct committee members chose 63-year-old Tony Cook during a Monday night caucus to serve out Turner's term.

Cook is the former superintendent of Hamilton Heights Schools.

Turner became the focus of a House ethics investigation earlier this year after he privately lobbied lawmakers to kill legislation that could have cost his family's nursing home business millions of dollars. He was cleared of wrongdoing, but was stripped of his House leadership title after defeating Democrat Bob Ashley in the November election.

Turner has accepted a job with a Christian megachurch in Atlanta, Georgia.