Jeanne Milliken Bonds is an American politician, political advisor, and lobbyist who served as the first female Mayor of Knightdale, North Carolina. Bonds was first appointed to the Town Council in 1994, elected Mayor Pro Tem in 1995, and elected by popular vote in 1995. Bonds was re-elected in 1999 and appointed mayor in 2002 to fill a vacancy created upon the election of Joe Bryan to the Wake County Board of Commissioners. Bonds has been a federal and state lobbyist, strategic communications and community relations professional, development professional, and economic development professional. She has authored speeches for government officials and executives.
While serving on the Knightdale Town Council, Bonds served as Deputy Director of the North Carolina Administrative Office of the Courts and special assistant to Chief Justice Burley Mitchell. Bonds was able to lobby state lawmakers to increase funding to the judiciary for more personnel and technology. She is also credited for her successful federal advocacy efforts as part of a multi-agency team that resulted in $30 million to NC for the Criminal Justice Information Network. Bonds was the North Carolina recipient of the Henry Toll Fellowship in April 1997, nominated by Secretary of StateElaine Marshall and Chief Justice Burley Mitchell. The fellowship is offered through the Council of State Governments to 40 emerging state leaders across the country each year. During her tenure on the Knightdale Council, Bonds served on the Finance Committee, Public Works Committee, Nominating Committee and Transportation Advisory Committee, CAMPO. Bonds was elected by her peers to the North Carolina League of Municipalities Board of Directors and served on the Finance Committee; Vice Chair, Policy Committee; and the Nominating Committee. She served on the Triangle J Council of Governments, Board of Directors; the Wake CountyGrowth Management Commission; the Board of United Arts Council of Wake County and, was the liaison to the Chamber of Commerce throughout her time on the Council. She created and led the first Economic Development Committee in Knightdale with another former Mayor, Billy Wilder, and they held an Economic Development Forum, "All Highways Lead to Knightdale." Bonds and Wilder also led an effort to assist Colerain, a small town in Northeastern North Carolina in the aftermath of Hurricane Isabel by sending public safety personnel and holding a fundraising event for relief efforts. There was a ceremony for Bonds when she retired from her local government role. In the early01990s, Bonds worked at the NC Rural Economic Development Center with Billy Ray Hall, President, and Gov. Robert W. Scott who had served on the Board of Directors and was serving as a Visiting Fellow. In November 2005, while serving as an executive, Senior Vice President for Government and Community Relations and Assistant Corporate Secretary for ElectriCities, a nonprofit advocate for two municipal utilities, Bonds and her staff lobbyist, Estherine Davis, and contract lobbyist, Former Raleigh Mayor Tom Fetzer were summoned by a grand jury in the federal investigation of North Carolina House Speaker James B. Black to answer questions regarding the hiring of Meredith Norris. Norris was a former political director for Black. ElectriCities hired Norris, the top political aide in April 2005, as well as Fetzer. Bonds left ElectriCities in 2007. During 2011 and 2012, she helped North Carolina state Representative Bill Faison as a volunteer strategist, creating a jobs plan and acquiring significant earned media for issues. In 1996, she helped Chief Justice Burley Mitchell as a volunteer with his statewide communications strategy and earned media, in his successful election as Chief Justice.
2010 election
On January 9, 2009 Bob Geary suggested on the Indy Week Blogs that Mayor Bonds might be a possible appointee to the North Carolina House of Representatives for District 39, a vacancy created when Linda Coleman resigned for a role in the Perdue Administration). She did not seek the appointment but instead, she ran for the seat in the May 2010 Democratic Primary Election. Bonds, a former State employee, was endorsed by the State Employees Association of NC in March. Bonds lost the Primary Election to Darren Jackson.
Role in Faison campaign
In March 2012, Jeanne Bonds was named as the "chief strategist" for Bill Faison. She helped Bill Faison as a volunteer, part-time advisor, providing strategic advice for public relations and significant earned media for positions on issues. In 1996, she volunteered for Chief Justice Burley Mitchell as a communications strategy advisor for his successful statewide re-election campaign.
Plain Talk Politics
Bonds created Plain Talk Politics in 2012, a weekly radio show and a website aggregator of news and opinion in North Carolina politics. Plain Talk previewed on television in February 2013 Bonds was cited in The New York Times for her analysis of North Carolina elections. Bonds' commentary on N.C. Governor Pat McCrory and public relations was cited by the News and Observer. In July, Bonds wrote an opinion-editorial for The New York Times in the newspaper's section titled, "Room for the Debate." The op-ed was cited in the News and Observer and the Charlotte Observer.
