Scandal at the state capitol

Well, ladies and gentlemen, the Indiana State Legislature is at it again. After a great legislative session debating gay marriage and cursive writing, we now get to see if an ethics scandal comes to fruition.

Rep. Eric Turner, R-Cicero, seems to have been caught throwing his weight around.
Turner reportedly lobbied against Senate Bill 173, which would have placed a moratorium on new nursing home beds. Sen. Patricia Miller, R-Indianapolis, who authored SB 173, argued since Indiana has 13,000 currently unoccupied beds in nursing homes, continuing to make more would be a waste of money.

What makes Turners lobbying unethical is that his son Zeke owns Mainstreet Property Group, which develops upscale nursing homes. The company plans to build two dozen more nursing homes in Indiana over the next three years, according to a testimony by Zeke Turner to the House Ways and Means Committee.

The underlying issue is that this isn’t the first time Turner has crossed ethical boundaries for his and his family’s financial gain.

Last year, he fought to get one of his daughter’s lobbying clients, Insure-Rite, a multi-million dollar contract with the Indiana Bureau of Motor Vehicles.

Anonymous Republican lawmakers told reporters that Turner lobbied his fellow representatives in the Republican Party Caucus meetings. In the legislature, both parties stage caucus meetings to discuss the workings and plans of the party.

Speaker Brian Bosma, R-Indianapolis, launched an ethics investigation against Turner after being urged by members of his own party as well as Indiana Democratic Party Chairman John Zody. Bosma sent a letter to the House Ethics Committee Chairman Rep. Greg Steurwald, R-Avon, requesting his committee investigate Turner’s actions.
 
Chairman Steurwald seems reluctant to bring charges against Turner. Steurwald said he is unsure if any lawmakers would testify before the Committee about what happened in the caucus.

“Those are private, confidential meetings and are intended to be private confidential meetings,” he said. 

I, for one, was unaware that corruption is completely OK when held behind closed doors. It’s shocking and disturbing to me that our legislators can waste taxpayer dollars to line the pockets of their families.

Turner, the second most powerful Republican in the Indiana House and one of the Republican caucus’s top fundraisers, knows he can get away with corruption.
This is because Turner is an important, powerful Republican who understands private caucus meetings are a place where the press is shut out and where he reigns supreme.

The Indiana State Legislature is broken when our representatives can be unethical in private and still rule over the legislature in public.

We deserve better.

ajguenth@indiana.edu
@GuentherAndrew