Before the election Lincoln served as a captain in the Illinois Militia during the Black Hawk War.

Before the 2002 election FC Bayern General Manager Uli Hoeneß expressed his support for Stoiber and the CSU.

Before election to the papacy, Pacelli served as secretary of the Department of Extraordinary Ecclesiastical Affairs, papal nuncio to Germany ( 1917 – 1929 ), and Cardinal Secretary of State, in which capacity he worked to conclude treaties with European and Latin American nations, most notably the Reichskonkordat with Nazi Germany.

Before his election as Pope, he served as Bishop of Caere, which made his election controversial, because, at this stage of history, a bishop was expected never to leave office to move to another see.

Before his election to the papacy, he had previously served as Bishop of Sutri.

Before his papal election, Cardinal della Rovere was renowned for his unworldliness and had even written learned treatises entitled On the Blood of Christ and On the Power of God.

Before the election, he founded the Young Nationalists as his party's youth wing and served as its first president.

Before Reagan's election, supply side policy was considered unconventional by the moderate wing of the Republican Party.

Before the 2008 presidential election he said, " On social issues, I lean Libertarian, minus the crazy stuff ," but said in December 2011 that if he were president he would do whatever Bill Clinton advised him to do because that " would lead to policies that are a sensible middle ground.

Before Harding's election, the nation had been adrift ; President Woodrow Wilson had been ill by a debilitating stroke for eighteen months and before that Wilson had been in Europe for several months attempting to negotiate a peace settlement after World War I.

Before John XXII's election a contest had begun for the imperial crown between Louis IV of Bavaria and his opponent, Frederick I of Austria.

Before his royal election, he was by inheritance Duke of Swabia ( 1147 – 1152, as Frederick III ).

Before this election, the United States had no chief executive.

Before the election, the War Democrats joined the Republicans to form the National Union Party.

Before the 1923 election, he resolved his dispute with Asquith, allowing the Liberals to run a united ticket against Stanley Baldwin's policy of tariffs ( although there was speculation that Baldwin had adopted such a policy in order to forestall Lloyd George from doing so ).

Before Clay's election as Speaker of the House, the position had been that of a rule enforcer and mediator.

Before the 1966 election, the widow ’ s pension was tripled and redundancy payments for laid-off workers were introduced.

Before and shortly after this election, the HZDS supported the creation of a looser federation — a confederation — between the two republics.

Before the 2002 election, former Moderate Party MP Sten Andersson defected to SD, citing that the party had gotten rid of its extreme right elements.

Before the election of 2004, Karzai led the country after being chosen by delegates of the Bonn Conference in December 2001 to head an interim government after the removal of the Taliban Emirate.

Before 2010, commissioners were elected on a nonpartisan basis, but Sullivan County's commission election became a partisan election in 2010 after the county Republican Party decided to conduct a primary election for commission seats.

Before the 2010 United Kingdom general election it was divided into three constituencies contained wholly within the borough-Brent South, Brent East and Brent North.

Before 1938, the federal courts, like almost all other common law courts, decided the law on any issue where the relevant legislature ( either the U. S. Congress or state legislature, depending on the issue ), had not acted, by looking to courts in the same system, that is, other federal courts, even on issues of state law, and even where there was no express grant of authority from Congress or the Constitution.

Before the Congress opened on 13 June, negotiations between Andrássy and the British Foreign Secretary Marquess of Salisbury had already " ended on 6 June by Britain agreeing to all the Austrian proposals relative to Bosnia-Herzegovina about to come before the congress while Austria would support British demands.

Before Corea completed a draft of the Nicaragua proposal, Congress was considering the Spooner Act, to authorize the Panama Canal.

Before 1972, Zambia had three significant political parties — UNIP, the Northern Rhodesian African National Congress, and the United Progressive Party ( UPP ).

Before the Nuclear Regulatory Commission ( NRC ) was created, nuclear regulation was the responsibility of the AEC, which Congress first established in the Atomic Energy Act of 1946.

Before the RTAA, if Congress wanted to establish a lower tariff for particular imports, it would act unilaterally, taking the foreign country ’ s tariff rate as fixed.

Before statehood he represented Virginia in the Continental Congress ( 1777 – 78 ) and the U. S. Congress ( 1789 – 91 ).

Before the Communications Act of 1934 was enacted as law by the U. S. Congress, there was a debate over commercial versus non-commercial broadcasting: Senators Robert Wagner of New York and Henry Hatfield of West Virginia offered an amendment to the then proposed Communications Act.

Before he transferred power to a younger generation of leaders, Jiang had his theory of Three Represents written into the Party's constitution, alongside Marxism – Leninism, Mao Zedong Thought, and Deng Xiaoping Theory at the 16th CPC Congress in 2002.

Before Juárez fled, Congress granted him an emergency extension of his presidency, which would go into effect in 1865, when his term expired, and last until 1867, when the last of Maximilian's forces were defeated.

Before being disfranchised by the Democrats ' passage in 1899 of a new state constitution that included discriminatory provisions, black citizens elected four African Americans to the US Congress from North Carolina's 2nd congressional district in the last quarter of the nineteenth century.

Before the opening of the 14th National Congress of the CPC in 1992, the Party's senior leaders, including Deng and Chen Yun, were to select candidates for the Politburo Standing Committee to ensure a smooth transition of power from the so-called second-generation leaders ( Deng, Chen, Li Xiannian, Wang Zhen, etc.

The Plight of the Montagnards: Hearing Before the Committee on Foreign Relations, United States Relations, Original from the Library of Congress.

Before the enactment of the current statute previous Acts of Congress ( the Presidential Succession Acts of 1792 and 1886 ) dealt with the hypothesis of there being neither a President nor a Vice President able to discharge the powers of the presidency.

Before a joint session of Congress on March 12, 1947, President Harry S. Truman stated, “ I believe it must be the policy of the United States to support the people who are resisting attempted subjugation by armed minorities or by outside pressures .” That summer, Secretary of State George C. Marshall proposed a plan for the economic reconstruction of Europe that would further entrench the division.

Before becoming General Secretary he had been voted Gorbachev's Deputy General Secretary within the Party on 12 July 1990, a newly created position as a result of the 28th Congress of the Communist Party

Before he could act on it, he was dismissed from the Cabinet and, in response, resigned his memberships in the Congress Party and the Lok Sabha.

* Statement of Information, Hearings Before the Committee on the Judiciary, House of Representatives, Ninety-Third Congress, Second Session, Pursuant to H. Res.

Before Congress enacted the ODA in 1983 only 38 drugs were approved in the USA specifically to treat orphan diseases.

Before joining Congress, Sherman was on staff at one of the nations ’ big-four CPA firms.

Before serving in Congress, Obey worked as a real estate broker.

Before his election to Congress, he served six years in the California State Assembly.

Before the opening of the 111th Congress, Emanuel accepted a position as White House Chief of Staff in the Obama Administration.