Collinsville, IL – A retired vice chancellor of Southern Illinois University Carbondale is the second Democrat to announce he will run next year in the 12th Congressional District.

Raymond Lenzi, 72, of Carbondale appeared before the Southwestern Illinois Building and Construction Trades Council to announce his bid to challenge the incumbent, Rep. Mike Bost (R-Murphysboro).

Lenzi retired in 2006 as SIUC Vice Chancellor for Economic Development and CEO of SIU Research Park. He then spent 10 years as board chairman for River to River Residential, now known as The Journey, which provides assisted and supportive living facilities in the region.

Joel Funk, of Mascoutah, a former Army aviation officer, has announced his candidacy in the 12th District Democratic primary as well. He is now a Northwestern Mutual representative in Fairview Heights. More information on Funk can be found on the Labor Tribune website and on Facebook.

A FORMER MINER
Lenzi told the Trades Council that he consulted before beginning his run with Ed Smith, from Marion, IL, a national leader of the Laborers and CEO of Union Labor Life Insurance Co. He said Smith told him to be sure and visit the Trades Council.

“I grew up United Mine Worker,” Lenzi said. “In our household, there was one big picture on the wall. You can guess whose it is – some of you that are older. He had bushy eyebrows. His name was John L. Lewis.

“I worked my way through college at four and a half times the minimum wage as a United Mine Worker, so I know about Labor, and I will be a strong supporter of Labor.”

INFRASTRUCTURE BILL NUMBER ONE
“The first thing we will do is support a big infrastructure bill that will get everybody here working for the next ten years. That’s number one,” Lenzi said. “And raise the minimum wage and pass better labor laws so that we can organize a bigger part of the workforce to be union labor, so that we all get a better slice of the pie and America prospers.”

Bost, he said, has ignored his promise to serve the district’s residents. “He’s not standing with the people, only the super-rich.”

PROFESSOR, EXECUTIVE
Before working at SIUC, Lenzi was a professor at University of Missouri. He’s also operated and bed-and breakfast and vineyard on his property near Carbondale.

“I’ve been a developer all my life in one way or another,” he said.

CARBONDALE — While incumbent U.S. Rep. Mike Bost won’t face a challenger in next month’s primary election, Democrat voters will choose between Joel Funk of Mascoutah and Ray Lenzi of Makanda to face off against him in the primary this November.

Both candidates recently sat down with The Southern Illinoisan editorial board to talk about the issues facing voters in Illinois’ 12th Congressional District, which runs from the Metro East St. Louis area through rural Southern Illinois.

Lenzi, a union coal miner turned academic who founded the SIU Research Park, said his experience in both arenas have given him a unique perspective on how to best serve the district. He learned the benefits of strong unions in his time underground, and his time studying economics gave him an understanding of how current systems are not working for the majority of constituents, he said.

Funk, a 13-year veteran of the U.S. Army, grew up on his family’s generational farm near Mascoutah. He said he wants to “try to fix the same reason why I left (the farm).” That means finding ways of reducing income inequality, increasing the ability for many in the district to make ends meet, he said.

On the issue of gun control, Lenzi was frank: he is a gun owner who wants more regulation.

“I’m a gun owner … but it’s time to put a ban on assault weapons and high-capacity magazines,” he said, adding he supports red flag laws and universal background checks.

Funk took a more measured approach, stressing balance.

“I am in favor of looking at a red flag law nationally and expanded background checks,” he said.

Lenzi spent a lot of time talking about climate and his ideas for reducing the district’s — and the country’s — impact on it.

“The climate crisis is real and we have to take urgent action to move to renewable energy in 25 to 30 years,” he said. However, as a former union miner, he said he knows how important those jobs are to residents in the 12th. So, he proposed a tax credit system that would aid miners displaced by the shift to renewable energy to be able to get jobs building a new renewable energy infrastructure.

Funk also acknowledged the region’s dependence on coal money and said there would need to be a transition to renewable energy.

“There’s only so much dead dinosaur fuel to go around,” he said. However, he did not go into specifics.

Both agreed that insurance companies and drug manufacturers needed to be put in check. Funk said people have lost their collective bargaining power with the companies.

“We pay what we are told to pay,” he said.

Lenzi said he’d like to see a bigger push toward a government option, but was not willing to ban outright the private sector options.

“I’d like to see a much simpler system,” he said.

The Illinois primary election will be held Tuesday, March 17.

BRAD PALMER   WSIU  SEPT 20th 2019

A second democrat has jumped into the race to oust republican Mike Bost as the U.S. Representative from the 12th congressional district.

Former SIU administrator Ray Lenzi officially launched his campaign on Thursday evening in front of around 30 supporters at Carbondale City Hall.

“We say it’s really time to drain the swamp. We say it’s time to retire Mike Bost.”

Lenzi laid out a progressive agenda that he says is in stark contrast to Bost, the GOP incumbent. He says progress must be made on issues such as healthcare, gun violence , income inequality and others.

“The current government is not addressing the problems of the American people. We need an infrastructure bill, we have crumbling roads, all of those things. Then, we also have the climate crisis, where we really need action.”

He believes voters across the district are ready for his progressive agenda.

“I think the phenomenon we saw with the conservative surge in the last three cycles, let’s say, and particularly in the most recent, I think it’s waning.”

Joel Funk from Mascoutah announced his intention to run for the democratic nomination in the 12th district last month.

GABRIEL NEELY-STREIT The Southern   Aug 30, 2019

CARBONDALE — Makanda Democrat Raymond Lenzi will be filing as a candidate to challenge U.S. Rep. Mike Bost in Illinois’ 12th District in the 2020 election, he announced Thursday.

“This is going to be a bold campaign and it’s going to be a campaign on the issues,” Lenzi told The Southern. “This is a tough district to win. We’re going to have to start early and work harder.”

Like Bost, Lenzi has deep Southern Illinois ties.

He comes from a multi-generational coal mining family, and put himself through Southern Illinois University Carbondale working in the mines, he said.

Lenzi holds multiple degrees from SIUC, and filled several roles at the university, including associate chancellor for economic development and CEO of the SIU Research Park.

“We did millions of dollars in development plans in deep Southern Illinois every year, so I know about financing and tax credits, and I have clear, specific ideas about economic development in the 12th District,” he said. “I want to build the ‘city-county coalition,’ where St. Clair, Madison and Monroe counties stand with Union, Franklin and Williamson. We need bold action so people can share in the good things of the great American economy.”

Lenzi sees Bost, a three-term incumbent, as a yes-man for President Donald Trump, whose administration he called “an egotistical farce.”

“I think (Bost) has been complicit in everything that’s happened in this administration,” Lenzi said. “He’s been silent about disastrous immigration policies, silent about a tax cut that is only benefiting the rich, silent throughout the climate crisis. He was even silent when Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner was starving our university.”

Lenzi hopes to appeal to Republicans on the issues, he said, from justice for coal miners, to stable economic policies and fair taxation.

“I ask them, ‘Do you really stand with this chaos in Washington?’” he said.