Path to Power
Bond was born on March 6, 1939, in St. Louis and grew up in Mexico, Mo., where he still lives. He’s a sixth generation Missourian, born to a family with a lucrative brick-making business.
Bond graduated cum laude from Princeton University in 1960 and was first in his law school class at the University of Virginia in 1963. He briefly served as a clerk to the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals chief judge (and Presidential Medal of Freedom recipient) Elbert Tuttle in Atlanta and practiced law in Washington, D.C., before returning to Missouri. When he got home he ran for a U.S. House seat and lost by a small margin in 1968.
Bond was appointed the state’s assistant attorney general in 1969 and was elected state auditor in 1970. But he had larger ambitions. In 1973—at the age of 33—Bond became the governor of Missouri, the youngest the state has ever had. He lost his reelection bid to Democrat Joseph Teasdale in 1976 but came back to beat him for a nonconsecutive second term in 1980.
Bond’s second term as governor ended in 1984. Before long, he was back on the campaign trail, running against Lt. Gov. Harriett Woods for a U.S. Senate seat in 1986. He won, 53 to 47 percent. Voters sent him back to the Senate three more times: in 1992, 1998, and 2004.
In 1992 -- a year when Republicans lost every other major race in Missouri -- Bond won reelection by 52 to 45 percent against St. Louis City councilmember Geri Rothman-Serot. The margin was similar in 1998, when Bond defeated Attorney General (and current Missouri governor) Jay Nixon for a third term. His widest winning margin came in 2004, when Democrats failed to persuade U.S. Rep. Dick Gephardt or Gov. Bob Holden or State Auditor Claire McCaskill (now the state’s junior senator) to run. Bond outspent Democratic state treasurer Nancy Farmer $7.9 million to $3.5 million, ran a series of ads promoting his role in the state’s job growth, and won with 56 percent of the vote.
Bond sits on the Senate Appropriations Committee and is ranking member of its Transportation, Housing and Urban Development subcommittee; the Select Committee on Intelligence; the Committee on Environment and Public Works, and the Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship. He is also co-chairman of the National Guard Caucus. He has been defeated three times in attempts to become chairman of the Senate Republican Conference.
From his seat on the Appropriations Committee, Bond has become an expert at winning earmarked appropriations for his state. His earmarks have contributed to public housing, lead paint abatement, university research, the Boeing Co., and infrastructure improvements.
He defends earmarks. “Tell Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, who was terrorizing Iraqi citizens and chopping off the heads of innocents, that the Litening Targeting Pod was congressional pork. It was a Litening Targeting Pod, funded by a Congressional earmark and fitted onto an Air Guard F-16, that introduced Zarqawi to his maker,” Bond said in 2007 in response to criticism of his earmark record.
According to the centrist group Taxpayers for Common Sense, Bond placed $248 million worth of earmarks in the $410 billion omnibus spending bill signed into law in March 2009, making him the sixth most successful earmark-winning senator in that round of appropriations.
Bond married the former Linda Pell in 2002. Samuel Bond, his son from a first marriage that ended in divorce, served two terms in Iraq with the U.S. Marine Corps.
In January 2009, Bond announced in a prepared speech before Missouri’s general assembly that he would not seek reelection to a fifth term in 2010. “In 1972, I became Missouri’s youngest governor,” the 69-year-old said. “Good friends: I have no aspiration of becoming Missouri’s oldest senator.”
The already announced Republican candidate for his seat is Rep. Roy Blunt (R-Mo.), a seven-term congressman and father of former Gov. Matt Blunt (R); Secretary of State Robin Carnahan (D), the daughter of former Gov. Mel Carnahan (D) and former U.S. Sen. Jean Carnahan (D-Mo.), is running on the Democratic side. Missouri has been a critical swing state. In 2008, Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) beat Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) by 49.4 to 49.3 percent, though Democrat Jay Nixon won the governor’s office.
