On January 8th, GOP Senator Christopher “Kit” Bond of Missouri announced that he would not seek re-election. Bond has a long, distinguished career in Missouri and national politics and has held his current Senate seat since 1986. He’s a fairly dependable conservative vote, with an 82.5% lifetime rating from the American Conservative Union. He disappoints hard-core conservatives on occasion, as with his recent support for the automaker bailout, but he is, in general, a dependable vote for the GOP (for example, today’s opposition to protectionism in the Obama economic destruction recovery legislation). Considering the current battle for the GOP to hold fillibuster rights, Bond’s seat is critical, and will be one of THE key matchups in 2010.
