Former Sen. Christopher S. Bond, a senior appropriator who built a reputation as a collegial, cigar-puffing pragmatist, died on Tuesday at the age of 86, the office of Missouri Gov. Mike Kehoe announced. No cause of death was provided.
Bond, best known by his nickname, “Kit,” left the Senate in 2011. He surprised supporters when he announced he wouldn’t seek a fifth term, closing a 40-year political career that made him his state’s pre-eminent GOP power broker.
“In 1972, I became Missouri’s youngest governor,” he said at the time. “I do not aspire to become Missouri’s oldest senator.”
The top Republican on the Senate Intelligence Committee in his final term, Bond served as the Senate point man for George W. Bush administration’s military efforts in Iraq and staunchly defended its secret warrantless surveillance program.
As an appropriator, he was known for the amount of money he could funnel to Missouri, particularly for road and water projects. When the watchdog group Citizens Against Government Waste gave him a “License to Pork” award in 1999, Bond responded: “If they think it’s pork, it’s an awfully healthy diet for the people of Missouri, and I’m proud to participate in it.”
He also found common ground across the political aisle, helping Democrats fight the Bush administration’s attempts to cut the Community Development Block Grant program in the 2006 budget. Former Sen. Barbara A. Mikulski, D-Md., a fellow appropriator, once described him as “very concerned about people who need extra help.”
He was also a chief sponsor of legislation that created the 1993 Family and Medical Leave Act.
“I am proud that Kit and I were friends,” former Sen. Claire McCaskill, a Missouri Democrat, tweeted Tuesday. “He cared deeply and always about Missouri.”
Bond was born into an affluent family that made its fortune in brick manufacturing. For college, it was Princeton, and after that, the University of Virginia for law school, where he graduated first in his class.
He started his political career in state government, becoming Missouri auditor at the age of 31. Two years later, he became the state’s first Republican governor since World War II. He served two non-consecutive terms before running to replace Democratic Sen. Thomas F. Eagleton in 1986.
After leaving the Senate, Bond joined law firm Thompson Coburn as a partner, where he advised clients on international trade, biotech, agriculture, cyberlaw and transportation. He later formed his own lobbying group, Kit Bond Strategies LLP in 2011.
Kehoe praised Bond in a statement, calling him “a fierce advocate for Missouri.”
“Kit kept Missouri’s interests at heart, both in office and out, making our state a better place to live, work, and raise a family,” Kehoe said. “Whenever he was thanked for his service, Kit’s response was always, ‘Serving the people of Missouri was the honor of my life.’”
Bond is survived by his wife, Linda, and a son, Sam, as well as Sam’s wife, Margaret, and two grandchildren.
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