B. F. Sisk

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B. F. Sisk
Member of the U.S. House of Representatives
from California's 15th district
In office
January 3, 1955 – January 3, 1979
Preceded byAllan O. Hunter
Succeeded byTony Coelho
Constituency12th district (1955–1963)
16th district (1963–1975)
15th district (1975–1979)
Personal details
Born
Bernice Frederic Sisk

(1910-12-14)December 14, 1910
Montague, Texas
DiedOctober 25, 1995(1995-10-25) (aged 84)
Fresno, California
Political partyDemocratic
Alma materAbilene Christian College

Bernice Frederic Sisk (December 14, 1910 – October 25, 1995) was an American politician who served as a Congressman from California from 1955 to 1979. He was a Democrat.

Life and career[edit]

Sisk was born in 1910 in Montague, Texas, the son of Lavina (Thomas) and Arthur Lee Sisk.[1]

Congress[edit]

He was elected to the House in 1954, representing a district that included Fresno, Merced and Modesto.[2] He defeated Republican incumbent Allan Hunter in one of the major upsets of the 1954 midterm Congressional elections. The district had been in Republican hands for all but ten years since its creation in 1913, but Sisk went on to hold the seat for 12 terms.[3] The district would remain in Democratic hands until the election of Republican John Duarte to Congress in 2022.

He was a long-time member of the House Rules Committee and the Agriculture Committee, and served as Chairman of the Cotton Subcommittee, where he helped heal the long-standing rift between southern and western cotton producers. A proponent of production inducements rather than direct farm subsidies, he backed legislation to aid the dairy, wine, sugar, fig and raisin industries.[4]

Sisk was also a major political force in the United States Congress for the creation of the Central Valley Project that eventually developed into a $37 billion water system that continues to serve California's 400-mile-long Central Valley.[3][5]

Sisk retired from Congress in 1978. He was succeeded by his former chief of staff, Tony Coelho.

Affiliations[edit]

B. F. Sisk was a member of the Palm Avenue Church of Christ in Fresno.

Death[edit]

Sisk died on October 25, 1995.[6]

Electoral history[edit]

California's 12th congressional district: Results 1954-1960[7]
Year Subject Party Votes % Opponent Party Votes %
1954 B. F. Sisk Democratic 63,911 53.79 A. Oakley Hunter (inc.) Republican 54,903 46.21
1956 B. F. Sisk (inc.) Democratic 69,300 73.00 Robert B. Moore Republican 40,663 27.00
1958 B. F. Sisk (inc.) Democratic 112,702 81.12 Daniel K. Halpin Republican 26,228 18.88
1960 B. F. Sisk (inc.) Democratic 141,974 99.91 Others (write-in) N/A 126 0.09
California's 16th congressional district: Results 1962-1972[7]
Year Subject Party Votes % Opponent Party Votes %
1962 B. F. Sisk (inc.) Democratic 108,339 71.87 Arthur L. Selland Republican 42,401 28.13
1964 B. F. Sisk (inc.) Democratic 117,727 66.77 David T. "Dave" Harris Republican 58,604 33.24
1966 B. F. Sisk (inc.) Democratic 118,063 71.38 Cecil F. White Republican 47,329 28.62
1968 B. F. Sisk (inc.) Democratic 97,476 62.46 David T. "Dave" Harris Republican 55,188 35.36
1970 B. F. Sisk (inc.) Democratic 95,118 66.42 Phillip V. Sanchez Republican 43,843 30.62
1972 B. F. Sisk (inc.) Democratic 134,132 79.13 Carol Harner Republican 35,385 20.87
California's 15th congressional district: Results 1974-1976[7]
Year Subject Party Votes % Opponent Party Votes %
1974 B. F. Sisk (inc.) Democratic 80,897 72.01 Carol Harner Republican 31,439 27.99
1976 B. F. Sisk (inc.) Democratic 92,735 72.20 Carol Harner Republican 35,700 27.80

References[edit]

  1. ^ Who's who in the West. Marquis-Who's Who. March 1978. ISBN 9780837909165.
  2. ^ Polsby, Nelson W. (2005). How Congress evolves: social bases of institutional change (1st ed.). Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-516195-3.
  3. ^ a b Saxon, Wolfgang (1995-10-27). "Ex-Congressman B. F. Sisk, 84; Champion of California Farms". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2023-12-28.
  4. ^ Farmworkers in Rural America, 1971-1972: Part 3B, Land Ownership, Use, and Distribution. Hearings Before the Subcommittee on Migratory Labor of the Committee on Labor and Public Welfare, United States Senate, 92d Congress, 1st and 2d Sessions, January 12, 1972, Fresno, Calif (Report). 1972-01-12.
  5. ^ MacDiarmid, John MacLeod (1975). "The State Water Plan and Salinity Control in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta of California". Yearbook of the Association of Pacific Coast Geographers. 37 (1): 39–54. doi:10.1353/pcg.1975.0003. ISSN 1551-3211. S2CID 128616441.
  6. ^ Archives, L. A. Times (1995-10-28). "B.F. Sisk; Central Valley Ex-Congressman". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 2023-12-28.
  7. ^ a b c "Sisk, Bernice F.", OurCampaigns, retrieved August 13, 2022

External links[edit]

U.S. House of Representatives
Preceded by Member of the U.S. House of Representatives
from California's 12th congressional district

1955–1963
Succeeded by
Preceded by Member of the U.S. House of Representatives
from California's 16th congressional district

1963–1975
Succeeded by
Preceded by Member of the U.S. House of Representatives
from California's 15th congressional district

1975–1979
Succeeded by