Lebanon business owner picked to succeed Watson

The nine member 51st Senate District Legislative Committee selected St. Clair County Board member Kyle McCarter on Saturday to succeed Frank Watson as State Senator, after a day long interview process involving 11 candidates.

Illinois GOP

Buy this photo

“I’m excited by this choice,” said Jerry Stocks, Chairman of the Legislative Committee and Macon County GOP Party Chairman. “We have a fine state senator.”

Stocks said McCarter pledged to be as accessible as was Senator Watson. Stocks also drew a comparison between McCarter and another popular legislator from the area.

“He (McCarter) has the potential to be as successful a legislator as Duane Noland,” said Stocks. “I was drawing comparisons to Noland in my mind as I listened to Kyle today.”

McCarter was introduced after a day long interview process that included candidates from all over the 51st Senate District.

“I am honored to serve in this position held by Frank Watson and I’m looking forward to serving, as he did, the people of this district,” said McCarter. “I can’t wait to meet all the citizens throughout this district and do my best to serve them.”

McCarter was asked by reporters why he chose to make himself available for the Senate seat.

“Leaders step up to lead and I just saw an opportunity to do more than I’m doing in my local area,” said McCarter. “I’ve never maneuvered for position but I’ve offered myself to serve and I’m very honored these gentlemen had enough confidence in me to replace Senator Watson.”

“This is a great opportunity to serve people. We have a lot of people hurting in this state. We have a financial crisis, people need help and they need us to sincerely listen to what’s affecting them,” said McCarter.

The 46 year old McCarter lives in Lebanon, in St. Clair County. He has been a member of the St. Clair County Board since 2000 and is a small business owner of Custom Product Innovations and Custom Coating Innovations.

McCarter graduated from Oral Roberts University in 1984 with a degree in Accounting and served as a missionary in Kenya and India during the 1980’s. He is married to Victoria and they have two sons, Austin and Zachary.

The 51st District Legislative Committee is made up of the Republican Party Chairmen from each of the counties which comprise the 51st District: Bond, Clinton, Effingham, Fayette, Macon, Madison, Moultrie, Shelby and St. Clair.