NMG member Tom LoBianco is the latest AP Best of the States winner, for a series of three exclusive stories on a nepotism scandal in Indiana politics.

LoBianco’s widely used stories detailed an influential GOP representative’s dealings that resulted in the House speaker urging that Indiana’s ethics laws be reviewed.

Two years of source-building brought LoBianco a tip that turned into great investigative pieces on how Rep. Eric Turner was trying to help the businesses of both his son and his daughter.

Turner was involved in legislation that would have given tax breaks to a company Turner co-founded that’s now run by his son. LoBianco’s story on that led Gov. Mike Pence to put on hold the $345,000 legislative package and order a review of the situation.

Next, LoBianco wrote about Turner introducing legislation to benefit a company represented by his lobbyist daughter, who has several clients targeted in that legislation.

The final story disclosed that leading Republican legislators had raised concerns about Turner in 2013. At the time, Turner was considered _ but not chosen _ for a powerful House chairmanship.