Sen. Michael Enzi (R) Elected 1996, 2d term up 2008
Born:	Feb. 1, 1944, Bremerton, WA
Home:	Gillette
Education:	George Washington U., B.S. 1966, Denver U., M.B.A. 1968
Religion:	Presbyterian
Marital Status:	married (Diana)
Elected  Office:	Gillette Mayor, 1975-82; WY House of Reps., 1986-90; WY Senate, 1990-96.
Military Career:	WY Natl. Guard, 1967-73.
Professional Career:	Owner, NZ Shoes, 1969-95; Dir. & Chmn., First WY Bank of Gillette, 1978-88; Accounting Mgr. & Computer Programmer, Dunbar Well Service, 1985-97; Educ. Comm. of States, 1989-93; Dir., Black Hills Corp., 1992-96; Western Interstate Comm. for Higher Educ., 1995-96.
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Wyoming's junior senator is Michael Enzi, elected in 1996. Enzi grew up in Thermopolis and Sheridan, the son of a shoe salesman, got degrees in accounting and marketing, moved to Gillette and became an oil company accountant and founded NZ Shoes. He served eight years as mayor of Gillette, the center of Wyoming's coal belt and its fastest-growing town. In 1986 he was elected to the state House and in 1990 to the state Senate.

After Senator Alan Simpson announced his retirement in December 1995, Enzi was one of nine Republicans and two Democrats to run for the seat. With support from a grass roots network of conservatives, Enzi finished first in a straw poll at the May 1996 Republican state convention; in second place was John Barrasso, an orthopedic surgeon from Casper who had appeared on statewide TV discussing health issues for 12 years. Their chief difference was on abortion; Barrasso supported and Enzi opposed abortion rights. Barrasso had more money, but Enzi won 32%-30%, with a big majority in his home area in northeast Wyoming and narrow margins in the Casper and Cheyenne areas.

In the Democratic primary Kathy Karpan, secretary of state from 1986 to 1994 and gubernatorial candidate in 1994, beat a man who called for construction of a 22,000-mile-high tower into space to promote world peace. A moderate, Karpan's opposition to gun control led the National Rifle Association to stay neutral; her opposition to federally funded abortions kept her off EMILY's List. But she had the liabilities of having supported the presidential candidacies of Bill Clinton in 1992 and Bruce Babbitt (unpopular in Wyoming as Clinton's Interior Secretary) in 1988. It was a game effort by Karpan, but Enzi led in polls all the way and won 54%-42%.

Enzi started off in the Senate by presiding for 100 hours in the chair by July and seeking permission to bring his laptop on the floor. The Rules Committee said no by a 6-1 vote; Enzi renewed his request in June 2002, noting that even the Senate is in a new century. In 2000 he denounced U.S. acquiescence to a United Nations agreement allowing countries to ban imports of genetically modified food. In 1999 he managed to get unanimous support in the Banking Committee for reauthorizing the lapsed Export Administration Act, adding higher fines and dropping useless restrictions. But this and other attempts failed, and in 2003 he was still working for reauthorization. He has opposed meatpacker ownership of livestock and in January 2003 he and Charles Grassley introduced a bill to ban ownership within seven days of slaughter; a similar provision was removed from the 2002 farm bill by the House. With colleague Craig Thomas, he got an amendment to help livestock producers to benefit from anti-dumping laws. Enzi has sought to get a veterans cemetery at Francis E. Warren Air Force Base in Cheyenne and to get Minuteman III missiles assigned there as its Peacekeeper missiles are dismantled; the base is Cheyenne's biggest employer and bases without missions are vulnerable in the base closing process.

In 2002, his sixth year in the Senate, Enzi was still little known in most of Washington, but he played a key role on a major piece of legislation. The issue was corporate accountability, and as the only accountant in the Senate Enzi could claim special expertise. In July 2000 he was one of 13 senators who signed a letter urging then-SEC Chairman Arthur Levitt to delay a decision on his proposal to bar accounting firms from doing auditing and consulting work for the same corporation. After the Enron bankruptcy in December 2001 raised questions about accounting, Enzi still urged caution and said he feared overregulation; he returned contributions from the Arthur Andersen and Enron PACs and said he was confident they would be contributed to funds aiding employees. Banking Chairman Paul Sarbanes held extensive hearings on the issue and Enzi, the fifth ranking Republican, paid close attention. The bill Sarbanes introduced to the committee did not go so far as the Levitt proposal, but did go farther than the bill passed by the House in April 2002. It included an accounting board independent of the SEC with power to set rules, investigate, punish violations and conduct regular inspections of accounting firms' work. Enzi worked closely with lobbyists for the big accounting firms but kept the perspective of a Wyoming small business accountant. He decided that some bill needed to be passed and Sarbanes, not wanting to report a bill supported only by Democrats, consulted him. "I knew there would be people on his side of the aisle who would be looking to him," Sarbanes said later. On the evening of June 17, Enzi flew in from Wyoming and went to Sarbanes's office where they negotiated a compromise. Enzi got Sarbanes to agree that two of the four members of the board must be accountants, that the board could adopt rules favored by the accounting industry and that the board would not be financed by accountants. Disciplinary proceedings would be confidential. On June 18 in the office of Phil Gramm, the ranking Republican on the committee, Enzi told committee Republicans that he would vote for Sarbanes's bill. Others agreed: six of the 10 Republicans supported it. It still looked as if the bill would not come up until the fall. But on June 26 the WorldCom accounting scam was made public. The Senate wanted to act, and Sarbanes could go to the floor with bipartisan support. On July 15 the Senate approved the bill 97-0. House negotiators got minor concessions from the Senate side in the conference committee, and the bill was passed and signed before the August recess. Without Enzi the bill might never have been passed.

Enzi did not have serious opposition in 2002. He won the Republican primary 86%-14% and the general election 73%-27%.

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DC Office
379-A RSOB 20510, 202-224-3424; Fax: 202-228-0359; Web site: enzi.senate.gov

State Offices
Casper, 307-261-6572; Cheyenne,307-772-2477; Cody,307-527-9444; Gillette,307-682-6268; Jackson,307-739-9507.

Committees

• Aging (Special).
• Banking, Housing & Urban Affairs: Housing & Transportation; International Trade & Finance; Securities & Investment (Chmn.).
• Budget.
• Foreign Relations: International Economic Policy, Export & Trade Promotion; International Operations & Terrorism; Western Hemisphere, Peace Corps & Narcotics Affairs.
• Health, Education, Labor & Pensions: Children & Families; Employment, Safety & Training (Chmn.); Substance Abuse & Mental Health Services.
• Small Business & Entrepreneurship.

Group Ratings (More Info)
	ADA	ACLU	AFS	LCV	CON	ITIC	NTU	COC	ACU	NTLC	CHC
2002	10	40	13	0	51	62	73	89	100	94	--
2001	10	--	9	0	--	--	83	100	92	--	80

National Journal Ratings (More Info)
	2001 LIB	--	2001 CONS		2002 LIB	--	2002 CONS
Economic	17%	--	77%		0%	--	94%
Social	0%	--	79%		0%	--	62%
Foreign	7%	--	72%		24%	--	67%
For National Journal's complete 2002 Vote Ratings, as well as previous ratings dating back to 1995, please click here.

Key Votes Of The 107th Congress (More Info)
1. Approve Bush Tax Cuts Y 2. Expand Patients' Rights N 3. Campaign Finance Reform N 4. Permit ANWR Development Y 5. Confirm Ashcroft as AG Y 6. Bar Gays in the Boy Scouts Y		7. $ for Hate Crime Prosecution N  8. Overseas Military Abortions N  9. Bar Coop. with Intl. Court Y 10. Trade Promotion Authority Y 11. Authorize Force in Iraq Y 12. Homeland Sec. Dept. Union N

Election Results (More Info)
	Candidate	Total Votes	Percent	Expenditures
2002 general	Michael Enzi (R)	133,710	73%	$884,114
	Joyce Corcoran (D)	49,570	27%	$8,467
2002 primary	Michael Enzi (R)	78,612	86%
	Crosby Allen (R)	12,931	14%
1996 general	Michael Enzi (R)	114,116	54%	$953,572
	Kathy Karpan (D)	89,103	42%	$814,258
	Other	7,858	4%