Dude Where's the Party

It's a bona fide romance. Local Dems don't just woo the senator with compliments; they shower him with gifts.

Last year, major Democratic leaders hosted a fund-raiser for Bond. Mayor Kay Barnes, past and present City Council members Mary Williams-Neal, Alvin Brooks and Troy Nash as well as state Reps. Melba Curls and Yvonne Wilson lent their names and liberal reputations to the affair.

Last month, Barnes and Brooks joined local African-American leaders the Rev. Wallace Hartfield, the Rev. Earl Able and Freedom Inc. President Mark Bryant in hosting a "Community Appreciation Reception" in Bond's honor at the Peach Tree Restaurant in the 18th and Vine Jazz District. The event's invitation included a solicitation for funds.

And a week before that, the Urban League of Greater Kansas City, the mission of which is to improve the quality of life for African-Americans, named Bond "Difference Maker of the Decade" -- a significant honor for anyone, let alone a Republican. "They've only done that one other time," says Jason Van Eaton, director of Bond's Missouri office. The other winner was William Clark, a longtime Urban League director.

"The senator is somewhat of an anomaly," Bryant says. "African-Americans generally will vote a straight [Democratic] ticket. But in one way or another, all of us have been touched by the senator's good work. And if we were ever to split the ticket, Senator Bond ... would be at the front of the line in terms of earning that support."

But with Democrats in Congress out of power and outmaneuvered on key pieces of legislation such as the recent Medicare bill, is this any time for local liberal leaders to help a Republican return to Capitol Hill?

"We're all on needles and pins," says Wilson, who had a hard time hiding her discomfort about her appearance at Bond's fund-raiser when the Pitch asked her about it. Despite her participation, she doesn't want anyone thinking she's lost her allegiance to the party she represents. "We're concerned about the leaders of our country. Not only at the White House level but at the Congress level. We need our party to get back in control," she says. "The more Democrats we lose in government, the worse this country becomes."

But when Bond's people asked Wilson to lend her name to a fund-raiser last spring, she agreed. For her, it was just part of doing business as a state representative.

"Bond has been [in Washington] long enough to know what's under the rug," she explains. "If you are politically involved, you use the people who represent you. I use the people who are in those positions. I'm looking out for my constituents.

"Of course, he is, you know, a true Republican," Wilson adds.

Is he ever.

Though local Democrats like to think of Bond as a moderate, his record suggests otherwise. Conservative groups that rate elected officials on their floor votes regularly give high marks to Bond. The Christian Coalition has found that Bond has voted its way 80 percent of the time. The American Conservative Union is even happier with the senator (82 percent), Phyllis Schlafly's Eagle Forum rates him at 87 percent, and the National Right to Life Committee considers him flawless (100 percent).

Meanwhile, left-leaning special-interest groups have repeatedly given Bond low grades:

· National Education Association: 27 percent

· American Civil Liberties Union: 25 percent

· AFL-CIO: 17 percent

· Americans for Democratic Action: 10 percent

· National Abortion Rights Action League: 0

· Ralph Nader's Public Citizen Congress Watch: zero

· Sierra Club: zilch

· Leadership Conference on Civil Rights: zip

· NAACP: nada

Bond cultivated these scores by spending years pushing a conservative agenda in Congress, including such recent battles as opposing measures to fully fund provisions in the No Child Left Behind Act, being among the first to rally public support for the invasion of Iraq, opposing the lifting of a long-standing ban on privately funded abortion services for women in the military, and leading the fight against tougher clean-air standards.

Local Democratic leaders, however, tend to overlook Bond's voting record and focus instead on a different statistic -- his ability to bring home money for local projects.

Across the city, one finds monuments to Bond's generosity. Downtown's Ilus Davis Park. Operation Breakthrough's dazzling, newly expanded day-care facility at 31st Street and Main. Cute, new split-level homes in blighted neighborhoods. Money for the Negro Leagues Museum and other projects in the 18th and Vine Jazz District. Money for the Samuel Rodgers Community Health Center. Money for the East Meyer neighborhood. For Blue Hills. For Vineyard. For the Mt. Cleveland neighborhood.

For years, Bond has brought home the bacon, finding millions of dollars in the federal budget to spend on urban projects in Kansas City. And that largesse has resulted in the kind of Democratic support -- particularly among African-American leaders -- that other Republicans can only envy. In his last election, Bond garnered an estimated 33 percent of the black vote in Missouri.

But similar generosity elsewhere -- namely St. Louis -- hasn't resulted in the same kind of aisle-crossing gratitude. Though Bond has also brought millions home to Missouri's eastern metropolis, he hasn't convinced Democrats there -- particularly St. Louis African-American leaders -- to look past his legislative agenda.