MO-Sen: Kit Bond Will Not Run for Re-Election

Sen. Kit Bond (R-MO) announced today that he will not be running for a fifth term in 2010. This is a big blow to Senate Republicans, who have already been greatly weakened by the last two election cycles and it gives the Democrats a greater chance of picking up the seat.

Senate Republicans now officially have three of their incumbents not running for reelection--Sam Brownback of Kansas, Mel Martinez of Florida, and now Kit Bond of Missouri. A fourth GOP Senator, Kay Bailey Hutchinson of Texas, is almost certain to resign her Senate seat to run for governor but has not yet made a formal announcement. It is now abundantly clear that the GOP will be in for another tough election cycle.

Recent elections show that the Democrats are gaining ground in the state--Democrat Claire McCaskill defeated then-incumbent Republican Jim Talent in the 2006 Senate election and Democrat Jay Nixon was elected governor in 2008. The state also only gave John McCain a narrow 5,000-vote victory over Barack Obama. These losses for the GOP may have indicated to Bond would be vulnerable if he ran again in 2010.

Now that Bond is backing down, there is sure to be a very competitive primary on both sides. On the Republican side, potential candidates include former House Minority Whip Roy Blunt and former Sen. Jim Talent, who are both rumored to be interested in the seat.

On the Democratic side, potentially strong candidates include Secretary of State Robin Carnahan, Rep. Russ Carnahan, and State Auditor Susan Montee. Robin Carnahan has polled well against Bond, and looks like she would be an especially strong candidate.

You can expect the candidates mentioned above among others to take a much closer look at the race now that Bond has announced that he will step down.