Real estate agent and former weatherman Craig Marsh has been selected to replace Troy Bell as the Liberal candidate for Mount Gambier.
Bell won the seat for the Liberals at the 2014 South Australian election, but resigned in August this year after an ICAC investigation led to him being charged.
He is accused of misappropriating more than $2 million prior to becoming an MP, but has vowed to fight the charges.
Bell has resigned from the party but remains in Parliament and is yet to decide if he will run as an independent at the upcoming March election.
The Liberals were forced to reopen preselection, and last night local members elected Mr Marsh as the party's candidate.
With Nick Xenophon's SA Best party emerging as a potential third force in state politics, Mr Marsh told the ABC the electorate had been in the hands of independents for too long.
"For the past 20 years we've had a succession of independents with no power," he said.
"An independent really gets nothing done. We've seen that.
"Mount Gambier's been forgotten. I reckon it's been neglected and I want that to stop."
Water must be protected from fracking, Marsh says
Mr Marsh is well-known in the region because of his time working at the local branch of the Bureau of Meteorology.
He described himself as ideologically Liberal, supporting lower taxes and smaller government.
"I had intentions of doing something along the lines of public life when I left the weather bureau," he said.
"I was thinking council … but there was an opportunity straight away to get into state politics where you can do a lot more things."
Mr Marsh said he supported Liberal leader Steven Marshall's proposed 10-year moratorium on fracking in the region.
"Without the pure water we have, we don't have Mount Gambier so we've got to protect those water resources," he said.
"We've got fairly unique geology. We don't have rivers, our water's underground.
"Conventional gas has operated in the Mount Gambier region for over 25 years."
