(LOGANSPORT, Ind.) – Logansport Senator Randy Head is resigning.
Head will step down next month to become chief deputy prosecutor in Pulaski County. He was a deputy prosecutor in Cass County before his election to the Senate 10 years ago. He says he was planning to run for a fourth term next year, but says the prosecutor offer came up unexpectedly. Once it did, there was a powerful financial incentive to take it: Head says his Cass County service left him a little more than two years shy of the eight years needed for his prosecutor’s pension benefits to kick in.
A chain reaction of resignations led to Head’s departure. Pulaski County Prosecutor Dan Murphy announced three weeks ago he was retiring in midterm, after 18 years in the post. The following week, Murphy’s chief deputy, Kelly Gaumer, won a Republican caucus to fill the vacancy. Gaumer had previously worked in the office of Cass County Prosecutor Lisa Swaim, Head’s wife. When Swaim called to congratulate her, Head says Gaumer asked if he’d be interested in filling her old chief deputy slot.
Head is chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee. He says he’s proud of bills he authored to fight the opioid epidemic — and the meth epidemic before that. He credits his bill moving Sudafed and meds like it behind the pharmacy counter with reducing the number of meth labs in the state.
Head also authored this year’s law creating new school-bus safety rules after three children were struck and killed in Fulton County while crossing a highway to reach their bus stop.
Head is the third Republican legislator to resign since the adjournment of the legislative session in April, following the departures of Representatives David Frizzell of Indianapolis and Kevin Mahan of Hartford City. A caucus Tuesday night in Marion will select Mahan’s replacement. State Republican officials have until mid-September to schedule a caucus to serve the 16 months remaining in Head’s term.
Head unsuccessfully sought the Republican nomination for attorney general in 2016. He says he won’t be a candidate in 2020.
(Photo: Rudy Balasko/Thinkstock)
