Bill Enyart: He May Be the Democrats' Perfect New Candidate in 12th District
</element><element id="paragraph-1" type="body"><![CDATA[When one door closed for 12th Congressional voters with candidate Brad Harriman's withdrawal from the race for U.S. Congressman to fill the vacancy of soon-to-retire Rep. Jerry Costello, another door--a bigger and better door--probably opened for Southern Illinois Democrats.
Illinois Adjutant General of the National Guard Major General William Enyart, a two-star general whose wife is a retired circuit judge, has the no-nonsense credentials to go one-on-one with Jason Plummer, the well-respected Republican who is out to wrest control of the seat from Democrats for the first time in seven decades.
Enyart totally impressed those gathered at a recent Democrat reception for Enyart at a rally in Williamson County last week. He stopped by the newspaper on Thursday to introduce himself on the way to an event in Christopher.
Major General William L. Enyart is the 37th Adjutant General of the State of Illinois. He serves as a member of the Governor's Cabinet and the Governor's principal advisor on military matters.
As the Adjutant General, General Enyart directs the Illinois Department of Military Affairs and is the senior officer in the Chain-of-Command for both the Illinois Army and Air National Guard.
He is responsible for the daily operations of the Illinois National Guard and oversees its 13,500 men and women in uniform (1750 of whom are full time) and for the 300 civilian employees in the Department. As the head of the Department, General Enyart works closely with the leadership of the National Guard Bureau and the Departments of the Army and Air Force.
Prior to becoming the Adjutant General, General Enyart served as the Deputy Commanding General for the Illinois Army National Guard.
General Enyart served on active duty in the United States Air Force. He served as Commander, Illinois Army National Guard Forces deployed to Kiev, Ukraine in July, 2005. General Enyart was selected to brief the Polish Army and Air General Staff on mobilization policy of United States Reserve Military Forces. He has also served overseas at Vincenza, Italy and Kadena Air Base, Okinawa, Japan.
Enyart was quick to challenge Plummer on the issue of transparency, releasing the last 10 years of federal income tax returns and challenging Plummer--part of a substantial family lumber business--to do the same. He has not.
"If you are going to Congress to write budgets for people you should be transparent about your own finances," Enyart said.
"I am use to working with both sides in finding answers," he said. "I want to bridge some of those gaps," he said. "Clearly the thing concerning most people is jobs," he continued. He called Scott Air Force Base with its $2 billion budget and SIU at Carbondale two of the area's economic engines, two anchors the area can build on. "We've got to take these economic drivers to leverage the economy," he said. "I have served my country for 36 years and I decided I wanted to get into policy issues," he said. After Harriman's exodus, Enyart was recruited by county Democrat chairmen in the 12th District.
"You can't put a price on experience," he said. "The reaction to my selection has been outstanding," he said. "People seem energized by my candidacy," he said.
With respect to America's ongoing involvement in the Middle East he said that involvement will be there as long as the United States has oil interests there. He said the faster we can shed some of our dependence on foreign oil the better. He said coal should be part of that mix.
Enyart said over the coming weeks he will spend a great deal of time meeting the voters of the 12th district and believes they won't be disappointed in the candidate they have recruited.