Kit Bond
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| Kit Bond | |
| | |
| 1987–Present | |
| Political party: | Republican |
|---|---|
| Preceded by: | Thomas Eagleton |
| Succeeded by: | Incumbent (2011) |
| Born: | March 06, 1939 St. Louis, Missouri |
| Spouse: | Linda Bond |
| Religion: | Presbyterian |
Christopher Samuel "Kit" Bond (born March 06, 1939 in St. Louis, Missouri) 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.
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[edit] Early life and career
Bond graduated from Deerfield Academy in 1956. He then completed his undergraduate studies at Princeton University in 1960 and received his law degree from the University of Virginia, where he graduated first in his class. He served as a clerk in the Fifth Circuit Court in Atlanta, Georgia. Bond practiced law at the Washington, D.C. firm of Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher before returning to his native Mexico, Missouri to run for Congress in 1968.
[edit] Initial public service
In Mexico, Missouri, Bond won his Republican Congressional primary in August 1968 but narrowly lost the general election to the incumbent Democratic Congressman Bill Hungate.
In 1969, Bond became an Assistant Attorney General under John Danforth. He next was chief counsel of Missouri's Consumer Protection Division, and was then elected State Auditor in November 1970,
Bond was elected governor in 1972. 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. In 1980 Bond made a successful comeback, defeating fellow Republican and incumbent Lieutenant Governor Bill Phelps in the primary and defeating Teasdale in November. Among his greatest accomplishments was taking the Parents As Teachers program statewide.
Bond was succeeded as governor in 1985 by John Ashcroft, a fellow Republican.
[edit] U.S. Senate
[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] Actions as Senator
In 2004, Bond sent a letter asking the Department of Housing and Urban Development's inspector general to investigate whether the Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight (OFHEO) had improperly leaked confidential information about Fannie Mae, which OFHEO regulates. In 2006, OFHEO investigators found a draft of Bond's letter seeking the probe of OFHEO on a Fannie Mae computer system nearly two weeks before the actual request was sent to HUD's inspector general.[1]
In July of 2005, Bond, chairman of the Senate Transportation and Infrastructure subcommittee, coauthored the federal highway bill which was signed into law in 2006. The five-year bill provides $286.5 billion for highways, roads and bridges. Bond announced that Missouri will receive almost $1.3 billion in new highway funds as a result of the bill. The new bill provides $862 million per year, a $200 million per year increase. Also, Bond secured $467.5 million for Missouri transportation projects statewide.
On October 5, 2005, Bond was one of only nine Senators to vote against the Interrogation Limits bill, which strictly defines the methods of interrogation that can be used by US forces.
In January, 2006, Bond joined Senators Evan Bayh (D-IN), Barack Obama (D-IL), and Congressman Harold Ford (D-TN) for meetings with the U.S. Military in Kuwait and Iraq.
On March 28, 2006, Bond voted [2] against creating the Office of Public Integrity, which would have looked into charges of corruption by lawmakers [3].
During August of 2006, he has introduced legislation that would require government employers to sign extra papers as a condition of employment. The purpose of this act is to ensure that should they leak any classified information to the press, they will have already agreed to prosecution with probable prison sentences. His reasoning follows previous public disclosure about secret overseas interrogation centers and secret domestic surveillance programs. [4](August 2, 2006, Kansas City Star Newspaper)
[edit] Personal life
Bond's son Sam, who completed a tour of duty in Iraq in 2005, is a member of 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, Mo., 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 PaineWebber, 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.[5][6]
[edit] External links
| Preceded by: Haskell Holman | Missouri State Auditor 1971–1973 | Succeeded by: John Ashcroft |
| Preceded by: Warren E. Hearnes | Governor of Missouri 1973–1977 | Succeeded by: Joseph P. Teasdale |
| Preceded by: Joseph P. Teasdale | Governor of Missouri 1981–1985 | Succeeded by: John Ashcroft |
| Preceded by: Thomas Eagleton | United States Senator (Class 3) from Missouri 1987— | Succeeded by: Incumbent |
| Governors of Missouri
<td style="vertical-align: middle; width: 1px" rowspan="2"> Image:Flag of Missouri.svg </td> |
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| McNair • Bates • Williams • Miller • Dunklin • Boggs • Reynolds • M. Marmaduke • Edwards • King • Price • Polk • H. Jackson • Stewart • C. Jackson • Gamble • Hall • Fletcher • McClurg • Brown • Woodson • Hardin • Phelps • Crittenden • J. Marmaduke • Morehouse • Francis • Stone • Stephens • Dockery • Folk • Hadley • Major • Gardner • Hyde • Baker • Caulfield • Park • Stark • Donnell • Donnelly • Smith • Donnelly • Blair • Dalton • Hearnes • Bond • Teasdale • Bond • Ashcroft • Carnahan • Wilson • Holden • Blunt |
| Missouri's current delegation to the United States Congress |
|---|
| Senators: Christopher Bond (R), Jim Talent (R)
Representative(s): William Lacy Clay, Jr. (D), W. Todd Akin (R), Russ Carnahan (D), Ike Skelton (D), Emanuel Cleaver (D), Sam Graves (R), Roy Blunt (R), Jo Ann Emerson (R), Kenny Hulshof (R) All delegations: Alabama • Alaska • Arizona • Arkansas • California • Colorado • Connecticut • Delaware • Florida • Georgia • Hawaii • Idaho • Illinois • Indiana • Iowa • Kansas • Kentucky • Louisiana • Maine • Maryland • Massachusetts • Michigan • Minnesota • Mississippi • Missouri • Montana • Nebraska • Nevada • New Hampshire • New Jersey • New Mexico • New York • North Carolina • North Dakota • Ohio • Oklahoma • Oregon • Pennsylvania • Rhode Island • South Carolina • South Dakota • Tennessee • Texas • Utah • Vermont • Virginia • Washington • West Virginia • Wisconsin • Wyoming — American Samoa • District of Columbia • Guam • Puerto Rico • U.S. Virgin Islands |
