PEACOCK EXPECTS TO RISE ABOVE CROWDED SENATE FIELD OF 15

Amid a crowded field of 15 Democratic candidates for the U.S. Senate, Bill Peacock believes his education, experience and electability will enable him to rise to the top in the August primary.

After the primary, Peacock said he is confident that he can wage the kind of campaign to unseat Republican Christopher Bond, who is seeking a second term.

"I feel that a combination of my education, experience and electability makes me the best candidate to defeat Kit Bond," said Peacock during a weekend campaign swing through Southeast Missouri. In October, Peacock formally declared his candidacy. He said so far he has raised more money than any of the other Democrats in the field.

A 50-year old St. Louis resident, Peacock contends that Bond has ignored the needs of average people, in particular the needs of the elderly, handicapped, women, and low income.

Peacock is attempting to portray Bond as someone with a wealthy background that makes him insensitive to the needs of average working people, and a product of special-interest groups.

Peacock offers a campaign slogan that urges voters to: "Junk Bond."

Before resigning to run for the Senate, Peacock was working as a business strategist for the largest privately held lobbying firm in Washington, D.C., Cassidy and Associates.

He has also worked for large companies like McDonnell Douglas and in the White House during the Carter administration.

Peacock is waging his campaign as an outsider, offering new ideas and a kind of sensitivity to the needs of people.

"I am an outsider, said Peacock. "I am not a politician feeding at the trough, but I know enough about the system to know the depressing ineffectiveness of Kit Bond and his insensitivity to people's needs."

Once it became clear that Lt. Gov. Mel Carnahan was going to stay in the 1992 governor's race, Peacock said he tested the water for a Senate race and "got a very favorable reception."

He said several candidates in the race are professional politicians.

Peacock charged that policies of the last two Republican administrations and attitudes of senators like Bond have created a situation that is gnawing away at the middle class, the backbone of the nation.

"I look at the future of my children and the dignity of my mother in old age," said Peacock in explaining his reasons for filing. "I want my children to be able to do more than sling hamburgers. I see the jobs of my friends being shipped overseas and no effort to keep them.

"If we want our kids to stay in school, we need to make sure they have decent jobs waiting on them, or else why bother finishing school?"

Peacock said he favors helping the defense industry convert from making weapons to building products that enhance quality of life. For example, Peacock said McDonnell-Douglas Co. could become a builder of high-speed bullet trains that are being discussed for the country.

The same high-tech skills that are used to design effective weapons systems could also be applied toward finding a way to make Missouri's high-sulfur coal burn cleaner and increase demand for it, he said.

Peacock said education and jobs are interrelated and in the future education must also focus on early childhood education, as well as retraining for workers who change jobs or whose jobs are eliminated.

"We need quality education at all levels, for all levels of capability," said Peacock.

He said Bond likes to talk about starting an early childhood education program while serving as governor of Missouri, but he has been unable to get it funded adequately at the federal level or even help make it available on U.S. military bases for families.

To bolster the nation's car industry, Peacock said he supports making interest on loans on cars produced in this country tax deductible.

Peacock worked his way through college and law school as a union carpenter and hod carrier. He graduated with honors from Princeton University and earned his law degree from Harvard.

A Vietnam veteran, he has served 28 years in the Marine Corps Reserves, where he hold the rank of colonel.

He served on the energy policy and planing staff in the Carter White House and worked as director of intergovernmental affairs in the Department of Energy. Later he moved to the Pentagon as assistant secretary of the Army, where, Peacock said, he was responsible for a budget four times the size of Missouri's budget while Bond was governor.

In his role as assistant Army secretary from 1979-81, Peacock said he was responsible for the "Be All That You Can Be" campaign and helped the transition toward an all-volunteer military and increased participation by women.

For McDonnell Douglas, Peacock was director of international marketing for a department; was vice president international for Emerson Electric; assistant to the chairman of Transamerica Corp.; and corporate counsel for Crocker National Bank.

He is the father of three children, ages 15, 18, and 19.

Peacock encouraged voters to "look for leadership." He said, "I've been a leader in everything I've done."