Rep. Jo Bonner (R)

The congressman from the 1st District is Jo Bonner, a Republican elected in 2002. Bonner was born in Selma and is just a little too young to remember when it was the focus of the civil-rights movement. He grew up in Camden, where his father, who died when Jo was 13, was a probate judge. In college, Bonner majored in journalism and graduated in 1982. Two years later, he started working as a campaign press secretary for Rep. Sonny Callahan, a gregarious nine-term Republican who rose to become an Appropriations subcommittee chairman, one of the so-called “cardinals” of the House. In 1989, Bonner was promoted to chief of staff and later moved his family back to Mobile and continued his staff work for Callahan there. That background left Bonner well positioned when Callahan announced his retirement three months before the 2002 primary. Bonner’s strongest opponent in the seven-candidate Republican primary had a similar background: Tom Young had been the chief of staff to Republican Sen. Richard Shelby for 12 years. Like Bonner, Young had his former boss’s endorsement and showed a knack for campaign fundraising. The two raised more than $2 million between them, including lots of money from Washington lobbyists. Young contrasted his experience on intelligence and defense policy with Bonner’s focus on more mundane constituent-service work. Bonner argued that Young had more connections in Washington than in southern Alabama; he jibed that Young should have been welcomed at a luncheon for “new Mobilians.” Young outspent Bonner by $300,000 and was helped by ads from the anti-tax group Club for Growth, but Bonner led the primary 40%-20%. In the runoff, Bonner was endorsed by the other Republicans who ran. He won 62%-38%. In a district held by Republicans since 1964, when Barry Goldwater swept Alabama, Bonner easily won in November, and has been re-elected easily ever since.

In the House, Bonner has a solidly conservative voting record. After Hurricane Katrina, he reassessed his support for repeal of the estate and gift taxes, worried about the bill for reconstruction in hard-hit Gulf states like his own. He secured $7.5 million for improved shelter space at the fairgrounds in Baldwin County. In 2006, he voted against renewal of the Voting Rights Act, saying that it was time to give the South “an opportunity to come out from under the burden of crawling to the U.S. Justice Department, on bended knee, and asking for its blessing to continue on the march for equality.”

From the moment he arrived in Congress, he lobbied GOP leaders to get Callahan’s old seat on the Appropriations Committee, which controls the government purse strings. He finally succeeded in February 2008, when Republicans gave him the seat that had belonged to Rep. Roger Wicker, R-Miss., who was moving up to the Senate to replace the retiring Republican Trent Lott. Although regional identity helped Bonner, he also pledged to Minority Leader John Boehner of Ohio that he would limit spending earmarks, the special provisions tucked into appropriations bills that had tarred the GOP’s reputation for thriftiness. Boehner said that with Bonner’s appointment, “the old model is broken.” Bonner said, “Since we helped create this mess, it should be up to us—House Republicans—to help fix the problem.” Bonner also served on the four-member Ethics Committee panel that reviewed the personal finances of Democratic Rep. Charles Rangel of New York, the chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee. In 2009, he became the ranking Republican on the Ethics Committee.

In a rematch against Belk in 2004, Bonner won, 63%-37%. Two years later, he defeated former Mobile County Treasurer Vivian Beckerle 68%-32%. Bonner seems likely to have a lengthy tenure in this safe Republican seat. In February 2009, he decided against a run for governor in 2010.