Borski was born in
Philadelphia,
Pennsylvania. He graduated from Frankford High School. He later graduated from the
University of Baltimore in 1971. He was a member of the Pennsylvania state house of representatives from 1977 to 1982.
Congress In 1982, he took on
GOP 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 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. 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 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-based 13th District of two-term Democrat
Joe Hoeffel. They expected that either Borski or Hoeffel would be bloodied from the resulting
primary election. 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 firm, Borski Associates. Governor
Ed Rendell 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==