Kit vs. Joe: When Missouri heavyweights fought twice for Governor

Bond regained political fame after stunning win by Teasdale

The death of Missouri political legend Christopher “Kit” Bond Tuesday, May 13 brought back memories for some people of a long, successful career. But there was a time when Bond was a loser mounting a comeback.

Bond was an upstart Republican in 1972 when he won the Governor’s race. Democrats had held that office since World War II.

But then Bond, who called Mexico, Missouri home, was challenged in 1976 by Jackson County Prosecutor Joseph Teasdale. They battled each other for governor twice, with mixed results.

With Missouri holding gubernational elections in the same years as presidential elections, events in Washington may have affected the state votes.

Bond defended President Gerald Ford in the 1976 Republican campaign, after Ford’s controversial pardon of predecessor Richard Nixon.

Teasdale rode the momentum for national political change in the wake of Watergate - momentum that put Jimmy Carter in the White House.

There also was an emotional moment in the background of the race. Rep. Jerry Litton had died in a plane crash on the night he won the Democratic primary for U.S. Senate.

According to Wikipedia, Bond had a 15-percentage point lead over Teasdale with about eight weeks to go in the campaign. But the challenger used a rush of attack ads on television between September and November to make up the deficit.

“It’s a Democratic state,” Bond campaign manager Geoffrey McCarron admitted to the Associated Press at the time.

The ads worked, as Teasdale edged Bond by about 13,000 votes. The Democrat won even though the Republican incumbent won 67 out of 114 counties (Teasdale led in the city of St. Louis).

So Teasdale became Governor in early 1977 while Bond returned to private law practice. But Bond decided to try again in 1980.

Bond, who was considered a moderate Republican, tried to sound like a populist. During one campaign news conference, he pledged to end the state sales tax on food if he was elected.

But he faced a primary challenge from the Missouri Lieutenant Governor. William Phelps had served under both Bond and Teasdale. During one campaign trip to Kansas City, Phelps walked outside a state office building downtown with a crumbling sidewalk and declared: “That must have been paved by a Democrat.”

Teasdale knew plenty about sidewalks. He resurrected the nickname “Walkin' Joe” in the 1980 campaign, a name he gained by traveling across Missouri by foot during a race in the 1970s. His populist approach turned off many influential Democrats, who opposed him.

As the August primary approached, both Bond and Teasdale held media events in Kansas City on the same late July day. Teasdale focused on helping people pay high summer cooling bills. Bond focused on getting tough against crime.

Teasdale won the Democratic nomination, but two challengers combined for 46% of the vote. One of them was Kansas City jazz club owner Milton Morris, whose campaign was considered a joke.

Bond disposed of Phelps with ease, taking 63% of the vote to Phelps’s 34%.

With the rematch set, Teasdale again moved toward character attacks. I covered one Kansas City speech where he referred to Bond several times as being part of a “web of privilege” with a wealthy background. Bond indeed had an Ivy League background, graduating from Princeton University.

But the presidential roles were somewhat reversed in 1980. Carter was considered weak, while Ronald Reagan promised a Republican “revolution.”

Two weeks before Election Day, Bond brought former Kansas City Police Chief and FBI Director Clarence Kelley to a news conference to reinforce his stand against crime.

Even though Teasdale had a prosecutorial background, Bond convinced more voters. Bond regained the governor’s office by more than 125,000 votes, or a 52.6% majority.

Reagan won the electoral votes in Missouri, as part of a 44-state landslide. Only U.S. Senator Thomas Eagleton escaped the red wave, winning reelection by a close margin over St. Louis County Executive Gene McNary.

Bond went on to serve four terms in the U.S. Senate. Teasdale never ran for office after the 1980 loss, although he was a campaign manager for Secretary of State Judith Moriarty in 1992.

Both men are remembered with landmarks in the Kansas City area. The “Bond Bridge” over the Missouri River in north Kansas City opened in 2010, while a state office building is named for Teasdale in suburban Raytown.

Bond died at age 86. Teasdale died in 2014 at 78.