Kit Bond

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Christopher Bond
Senior Senator from Missouri
Incumbent
Assumed office  January 6, 1987 Serving with Claire McCaskill
Preceded by	Thomas Eagleton
49th Governor of Missouri
In office January 12, 1981 – January 14, 1985
Lieutenant	Kenneth Rothman
Preceded by	Joseph Patrick Teasdale
Succeeded by	John Ashcroft
47th Governor of Missouri
In office January 8, 1973 – January 10, 1977
Lieutenant	William C. Phelps
Preceded by	Warren Eastman Hearnes
Succeeded by	Joseph Patrick Teasdale
Born	March 6, 1939 (1939-03-06) (age 69) St. Louis, Missouri
Nationality	American
Political party	Republican
Spouse	Linda Bond
Alma mater	Princeton University University of Virginia
Religion	Presbyterian

Christopher Samuel "Kit" Bond (born March 6, 1939) is the former governor and current senior United States Senator of Missouri. He has been in the Senate since 1987 and is a member of the Republican Party.

[edit] Early life and career

A sixth-generation Missourian, Bond was born in St. Louis, Missouri to Elizabeth Green and Arthur D. Bond.^[1] His father was captain of the 1924 Missouri Tigers football team and a Rhodes Scholar. His maternal grandfather, A.P. Green, founded A.P. Green Industries, a fireclay manufacturer and a major employer for many years in Bond's native Mexico, Missouri. Kit Bond graduated from Deerfield Academy in 1956, Princeton University in 1960, and the University of Virginia School of Law in 1963. From 1963 to 1964, Bond served as a law clerk to the Honorable Elbert Tuttle, then Chief Judge on the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit in Atlanta, Georgia. From 1964 to 1967, Bond practiced law at Covington & Burling in Washington, D.C.

[edit] Initial public service

Bond's rise in Missouri politics was meteoric: four years after returning to his home state, he was elected governor. Bond moved back to his hometown of Mexico, Missouri in the fall of 1967, and ran for Congress in 1968. He won the Republican primary in August, and nearly defeated the incumbent, Democratic Congressman Bill Hungate, in November. Then-Attorney General John Danforth hired Bond as an Assistant Attorney General in 1969, where Bond led the office's Consumer Protection Division. At the age of 31, Bond was elected Missouri State Auditor in 1970; two years later, Bond captured the governor's mansion, making him, at 33 years of age, the youngest governor in the history of Missouri. In 1976, he was on the short list of to be Gerald Ford's vice presidential running mate.[1]

In many ways Bond governed as a moderate during his first term as governor: for example, he drew criticism from conservatives for his support of the Equal Rights Amendment. While governor, on June 25, 1976 he signed an executive order rescinding the Extermination Order against "Mormons" issued by governor Lilburn Boggs on October 27, 1838. In 1976, in a surprising upset, Bond was defeated for re-election by Democrat Joseph P. Teasdale, then Jackson County Prosecutor. Teasdale's tenure was rocky, and in 1980 Bond made a successful comeback, defeating fellow Republican and incumbent Lieutenant Governor Bill Phelps in the primary, and Teasdale in November. Among his most noted accomplishments was taking the Parents As Teachers program statewide.

Bond was succeeded as governor in 1985 by John Ashcroft, also a Republican.

[edit] U.S. Senate

[edit] Committee Assignments

• Committee on Appropriations
  • Subcommittee on Agriculture, Rural Development, Food and Drug Administration, and Related Agencies
  • Subcommittee on Defense
  • Subcommittee on Energy and Water Development
  • Subcommittee on Financial Services and General Government
  • Subcommittee on State, Foreign Operations, and Related Programs
  • Subcommittee on Transportation, Housing and Urban Development, and Related Agencies (Ranking Member)
• Committee on Environment and Public Works
  • Subcommittee on Public Sector Solutions to Global Warming, Oversight, and Children's Health Protection
  • Subcommittee on Transportation Safety, Infrastructure Security, and Water Quality
• Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship
• Select Committee on Intelligence (Vice Chairman)
  • Subcommittee on Oversight of the Terrorist Surveillance Program

[edit] Elections

After Sen. Thomas Eagleton decided not to run for re-election, Bond was elected Senator in 1986, defeating Lieutenant Governor Harriett Woods. Bond was narrowly re-elected in 1992 over St. Louis County Councilwoman Geri Rothman-Serot. In 1998 Bond decisively defeated Attorney General Jay Nixon and Libertarian Tamara Millay after a hard-fought campaign, and in 2004 he handily won re-election over Democratic challenger State Treasurer Nancy Farmer with 56 percent of the vote.

[edit] Environmental record

The conservative environmental watchdog group Republicans for Environmental Protection (REP) has given Bond an exceptionally low rating of –2 for the 109th United States Congress, citing anti-environment votes on seven out of seven issues deemed critical by the organization. According to the 2006 REP scorecard, Bond supported oil drilling both offshore and in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, while opposing “efficiency and renewable-resource programs to improve energy security, lower costs, and reduce energy-related environmental impacts."^[2]

[edit] Approval ratings

[edit] Issues

[edit] Torture

Kit Bond drew much criticism when, during a debate he made a comment comparing waterboarding to swimming, stating "There are different ways of doing it. It's like swimming, freestyle, backstroke," in response to the question "do you think that waterboarding... constitutes torture?" [2] While the comment elicited widespread outrage as a glib comparison of an act of torture to a recreational activity, taken in context Bond's quote seems to be an unfortunate reference to the fact that both activities encompass a variety of techniques rather than an equation of their physical severity. He followed up by saying "There are some who say that, in extreme circumstances, if there is threat of an imminent major attack on the United States, it might be used, but I certainly would not favor it in any circumstance."

[edit] Personal life

Bond's son Sam, who recently (fall 2007) returned from his second tour of duty in Iraq, is an officer in the United States Marine Corps, making Bond one of only a few federal elected officials with a child serving in uniform.

In 1994, his wife, Carolyn, filed for a divorce, which was finalized the following year. Bond married Linda Pell, now Linda Bond, in 2002. She grew up in the Kansas City, Missouri, suburb of Gladstone and works as a consultant to the National Republican Senatorial Committee. She and Bond had dated for about a year before they were engaged on May 17, 2001, and had also dated in 1996 and 1997. It is her second marriage as well.

After winning his second term as Governor, Bond sued his investment manager and Paine Webber, alleging his $1.3 million trust fund had been drained. He was one of several clients who sued, and he settled in 1996 for $900,000.

Bond has permanent vision loss in one eye, which he claims is the result of undiagnosed amblyopia during childhood.[3][4]

[edit] Footnotes

[edit] External links

• Interview with Gwen Ifill
• United States Senator Kit Bond, U.S. Senate website

• Biography at the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress
• Voting record maintained by The Washington Post
• Campaign finance reports and data at the Federal Election Commission
• Campaign contributions at OpenSecrets.org
• Biography, voting record, and interest group ratings at Project Vote Smart
• Issue positions and quotes at On The Issues
• Staff salary data at LegiStorm.com
• Kit Bond for U.S. Senate, Campaign site

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