RightDataUSA


Edward Biester

[Congressional biography]

Born: January 5, 1931 in Trevose, PA

Education:

  • Wesleyan University, 1952
  • Temple University Law School, 1955

Career:

  • Lawyer
  • Assistant Bucks County district attorney, 1958-1964
  • Bucks County common pleas judge, 1980-2006

Elected Office:

  • PA Attorney General, 1979-1980


Election Results for Edward Biester


Click on the Year to see the results of that election.

YearAgeStatePartyOfficeDistrictStagePosVotes%
1966 35 PA R U.S. House District 08 Primary 1 21,001 58.9%
1966 35 PA R U.S. House District 08 General 1 70,435 59.5%
1968 37 PA R U.S. House District 08 General 1 94,254 58.0%
1970 39 PA R U.S. House District 08 General 1 73,041 56.3%
1972 41 PA R U.S. House District 08 Primary 1 25,459 81.2%
1972 41 PA R U.S. House District 08 General 1 115,799 64.4%
1974 43 PA R U.S. House District 08 Primary 1 17,848 66.6%
1974 43 PA R U.S. House District 08 General 1 75,313 56.2%


Age: Age as of July 1 of the year pertaining to this election.



Ideology Data for Edward Biester


Click on the number in the 'Conserv.' column to see all of the key votes for that year.

YearAgeBodyConservative
Coalition		Party UnityPresidential
Support		Vote %LiberalConserv.
P
1967 36 House 70 30 71 29 D 64 36 98 20 64
1968 37 House 39 53 45 45 D 68 25 93 33 50
1969 38 House 33 64 35 64 R 62 36 99 60 20
1970 39 House 25 70 39 56 R 71 29 95 78 11
1971 40 House 29 66 40 55 R 56 42 93 77 20
1972 41 House 29 71 35 65 R 70 30 96 75 0
1973 42 House 29 67 32 65 R 43 52 97 64 20
1974 43 House 25 68 29 64 R 55 36 03 83* 6
1975 44 House 32 66 42 56 R 58 40 97 89 23
1976 45 House 27 61 21 62 R 27 59 85 67 3
Lifetime conservative rating:   21%


Age: Age as of July 1 of the year pertaining to this row.


Conservative Coalition: According to the publication "Congressional Quarterly" (CQ), this is an alliance of Republicans and Southern Democrats (from back when Southern Democrats tended to be conservative or at least moderate) against Northern Democrats in Congress.

This concept had significant meaning perhaps through the 1980's. These statistics stopped being computed after 2000 because conservative Democrats no longer existed except in very rare cases. The number under the green check is the percentage of time this Representative or Senator voted with the coalition; the number under the red X is the percentage of the time he opposed the coalition. The numbers often do not add to 100% because of instances where no vote was cast.


Party Unity: According to CQ, a Party Unity vote in Congress is one in which the parties were split, with a majority of Democrats opposing a majority of Republicans.

The number under the green check is the percentage of time this Representative or Senator voted with his party; the number under the red X is the percentage of the time he opposed the party. The numbers often do not add to 100% because of instances where no vote was cast.


Presidential Support: These are votes for which the President has stated his position, either in via a message to Congress, by press conference remarks or other public statements and documents.

The number under the green check is the percentage of time this Representative or Senator voted with the President; the number under the red X is the percentage of the time he opposed the President. The numbers often do not add to 100% because of instances where no vote was cast. The "P" column indicates the party of the President in each year.


Vote %: The percentage of roll-call votes in which this Representaive or Senator participated by voting "Yes" or "No" (as opposed to "Present" or not voting at all.)


Liberal Rating: These ratings are based on key votes as identifed by the ultra-liberal advocacy organization called "Americans for Democratic Action" (ADA). They have been rating members of Congress since 1947. The number shown is the percentage of the time this Representative or Senator took the liberal position on a key issue. The methodology behind the calculation can be found here. Ratings followed by an asterisk were calculated the "ADA way" due to missing data regarding key votes in the ADA source material.


Conservative Rating: These ratings are based on key votes as identifed by the conservative advocacy organization called the "American Conservative Union" (ACU). They have been rating members of Congress since 1971. The number shown is the percentage of the time this Representative or Senator took the conservative position on a key issue.

The liberal and conservative ratings are not expected to add to 100% because the two groups use different sets of key votes to determine their ratings. Conservative ratings from 1961 through 1970 (and for 2024) were calculated based on key votes as selected by the creators of this website.