Fowler, Turner-Lairy qualify for Turner’s Miss. Senate post

December 18, 2012

FROM WIRE REPORTS

Kenny Fowler and Angela Turner-Lairy have qualified for a Jan. 15 special election to succeed late Miss. Sen. Bennie Turner, who died in November.

The winner of the nonpartisan election will complete the remainder of Turner’s term.

Turner-Lairy, an attorney in West Point, is Turner’s daughter. Fowler is a businessman.

The Daily Times Leader previously reported Dist. 38 Rep. Tyrone Ellis is serving as Turner-Lairy’s campaign manager. She also said she plans to step down from her current posts as prosecuter for West Point and Clay County.

The State Board of Election Commissioners approved the candidates’ petitions Tuesday.

Senate Dist. 16 includes parts of Clay, Lowndes, Noxubee and Oktibbeha counties. Turner served as Dist. 16’s senator since 1993. He served as chairman of the Mississippi State Senate’s Ethics Committee as well as vice chairman of the Judiciary Division A Committee. He also was a member of the committees of Appropriations, Compilation, Revision and Publication, Constitution, Economic Development, Veteran and Military Affairs and Public Health and Welfare.

Dist. 18 State Sen. Giles Ward said he worked closely with Turner when the two served together in the Judiciary Division B committee.

“Sen. Turner was an individual that probably all of us who have come to this chamber after him would aspire to be. From a respect standpoint, I don’t know of any peers who did not have the highest regard for him. When he went to the podium, regardless of where you were in the chamber, you gave him 100 percent of your attention,” Ward said.

He added that Turner’s ability to bring a sense of levity to issues debated in the Senate was one of his strongest traits.