Robert Anthony Borski Jr. (born October 20, 1948) is an American politician. He was a Democratic Party state representative and later a

Congressman A member of congress (MOC), also known as a congressman or congresswoman, is a person who has been appointed or elected and inducted into an official body called a congress, typically to represent a particular constituency in a legislature. The t ...

from the

U.S. state In the United States, a state is a constituent political entity, of which there are 50. Bound together in a political union, each state holds governmental jurisdiction over a separate and defined geographic territory where it shares its so ...

Pennsylvania Pennsylvania, officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a U.S. state, state spanning the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern United States, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes region, Great Lakes regions o ...

from 1983 until 2003, representing the state's 3rd congressional district.

Biography

Borski was born in

Philadelphia Philadelphia ( ), colloquially referred to as Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania, most populous city in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania and the List of United States cities by population, sixth-most populous city in the Unit ...

, and he graduated from the

University of Baltimore The University of Baltimore (UBalt, UB) is a public university in Baltimore, Maryland, United States. It is part of the University System of Maryland. UBalt consists of four colleges in applied arts and sciences, Robert G. Merrick School of Bu ...

in 1971. He was a member of the Pennsylvania state house of representatives from 1977 to 1982.

Congress

In 1982, he took on

GOP The Republican Party, also known as the Grand Old Party (GOP), is a right-wing political party in the United States. One of the two major parties, it emerged as the main rival of the then-dominant Democratic Party in the 1850s, and the tw ...

Representative Charles F. Dougherty in the 3rd Congressional District, which had been renumbered from the 4th after the 1980 Census. 1982 was a rough year for Republicans due to a recession and Borski would be a beneficiary of the public discontent. He also was helped by some friendly redistricting that shifted some heavily Democratic wards to the 3rd. Borski scored a narrow victory of less than 3,000 votes—in the process, ousting the last Republican to represent a significant portion of Philadelphia in the House. The Borski-Dougherty battles would be fought out in this district three more times in 1992, 1998, and 2000 with Borski victorious each time. In his 20 years in Congress, Borski rose to become the second-ranking Democrat on the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee. He was generally classed as a liberal Democrat, but opposed

abortion Abortion is the early termination of a pregnancy by removal or expulsion of an embryo or fetus. Abortions that occur without intervention are known as miscarriages or "spontaneous abortions", and occur in roughly 30–40% of all pregnan ...

in most cases. On October 10, 2002, Robert Borski was among the 81 House Democrats who voted in favor of authorizing the

invasion of Iraq An invasion is a military offensive of combatants of one geopolitical entity, usually in large numbers, entering territory controlled by another similar entity, often involving acts of aggression. Generally, invasions have objectives ...

. In 2003, the post office where Borski's father once carried mail was renamed in his honor.

Redistricting

In 2002, the Republican-controlled

State Legislature A state legislature is a Legislature, legislative branch or body of a State (country subdivision), political subdivision in a Federalism, federal system. Two federations literally use the term "state legislature": * The legislative branches of ...

threw Borski a curve. Pennsylvania was due to lose two districts as a result of the 2000 United States Census, and the legislature dismantled his northeast Philadelphia district. Borski's home was drawn into the

Montgomery County Montgomery County may refer to: Australia * The former name of Montgomery Land District, Tasmania United Kingdom * The historic county of Montgomeryshire, Wales, also called County of Montgomery United States * Montgomery County, Alabama * Montg ...

-based 13th District of two-term Democrat

Joe Hoeffel Joseph Merrill Hoeffel III ( ; born September 3, 1950) is an American author and politician. A Democrat, Hoeffel was a member of the United States House of Representatives from 1999 to 2005, representing Pennsylvania's 13th congressional distr ...

. They expected that either Borski or Hoeffel would be bloodied from the resulting

primary election Primary elections or primaries are elections held to determine which candidates will run in an upcoming general election. In a partisan primary, a political party selects a candidate. Depending on the state and/or party, there may be an "open pr ...

. However, Borski decided not to run, instead retiring from Congress and allowing Hoeffel to avoid a costly primary campaign.

Later career

After retiring, Borski formed his own

lobbying Lobbying is a form of advocacy, which lawfully attempts to directly influence legislators or government officials, such as regulatory agency, regulatory agencies or judiciary. Lobbying involves direct, face-to-face contact and is carried out by va ...

firm, Borski Associates. Governor

Ed Rendell Edward Gene Rendell (; born January 5, 1944) is an American politician, author, and former prosecutor who served as the 45th governor of Pennsylvania from 2003 to 2011. He previously served as chair of the national Democratic Party from 1999 to 2 ...

hired Borski in 2003 to help lobby for the state of Pennsylvania in Congress. In 2010, ''Politics Magazine'' named him one of the most influential Democrats in Pennsylvania.

References

External links

* *
PA redistricting lawsuit
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Borski, Robert 1948 births Living people University of Baltimore alumni Democratic Party members of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives American lobbyists American politicians of Polish descent Politicians from Philadelphia Democratic Party members of the United States House of Representatives from Pennsylvania Members of Congress who became lobbyists 21st-century Pennsylvania politicians 21st-century members of the United States House of Representatives 20th-century members of the Pennsylvania General Assembly