MU Professor Says Bond's Retirement Will Lead to Expensive, Competitive Race in 2010

Jan. 8, 2009

Story Contact:  Jeffrey Beeson, 573-882-9144, BeesonJ@missouri.edu
Peverill Squire, 573-882-0097, Squirep@missouri.edu

COLUMBIA, Mo. –Missouri Sen. Kit Bond announced today that he will not run for reelection in 2010, relinquishing the seat he has held since 1986. Peverill Squire, the Griffiths Endowed Chair of Political Science at the University of Missouri, said that Missouri will see a very competitive and expensive contest to replace Bond in 2010.             

 “Every member of the state’s U.S. House delegation is apt to give serious thought to running for the open Senate seat. On the Democratic side, Missouri Secretary of State Robin Carnahan is probably first in line to get her party’s nomination.  She had already thought about running against Senator Bond, and given her experience and family name, she will be a strong candidate,” Squire said. “The Republicans do not have an obvious front runner, but they have a number of plausible candidates, and there is a good chance that the political pendulum may swing a bit back in their direction in two years.”

Squire joined the MU Department of Political Science in 2007. He holds a doctorate from the University of California, Berkeley (1986). Squire previously taught at the University of Iowa and has been a visiting professor at Meiji University in Tokyo, Japan, and a Fulbright Distinguished Lecturer, holding the John Marshall Chair in Political Science at the Budapest (Hungary) University of Economic Sciences. He is co-editor of Legislative Studies Quarterly. Squire specializes in American politics and legislative studies.

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