He was elected to the Missouri House of Representatives in 1972 and served until 1982. For the 1964, 1980, and 1988Republican National Conventions, Buechner was a delegate. In 1984 he ran for the U.S. House of Representatives in Missouri's 2nd congressional district, challenging incumbentDemocrat Robert A. Young. Buechner lost narrowly to Young, receiving 47.5% of the vote. In 1986, Buechner again challenged Young, and this time he was elected, winning 52.7% of the vote. In 1987, Buechner was among 26 House Republicans who voted against overriding President Ronald Reagan's veto of a clean water bill that Reagan believed was "loaded with waste and larded with pork." At the House, Buechner served in the Budget Committee and the Committee on Science, Space and Technology. The American Conservative Union gave Buechner an 86% conservative rating for his 1987 votes on certain bills; subsequent ratings were 88% in 1988, 73% in 1989, and 67% in 1990. Buechner was re-elected in 1988, but in 1990 he was defeated by Democrat Joan Kelly Horn by only 54 votes. In that election, 102 of the 406 House members who won re-election did so with 60 percent of the vote or less, and R.W. Apple Jr. of The New York Times blamed " and the budget battle" for Buechner's loss. Tim Graham, director of media analysis for the Media Research Center, once served as press secretary for Buechner. Buechner was the first Congressional guest on Late Night with David Letterman. For around five times until 1992, Buechner was among participants in weekly Thursday night poker games that Senator Alfonse D'Amato hosted in D'Amato's Washington office. Those poker games helped lobbyists connect to members of Congress. After Congress, Buechner became president of the International Republican Institute. After Senator John McCain became chairman of the Institute, the board fired Buechner, who later described his dismissal as "less than gracious." He also became a partner at the Washington, D.C. office of law firm Manatt, Phelps & Phillips and later Anderson Kill & Olick, P.C. In academia, Buechner was a visiting professor of political thought at Webster University Vienna and adjunct professor of political science at Saint Louis University and Stephens College.
Personal life
Buechner's first marriage was to Marietta Caiarelli, a nurse. They had a son, Terrence, in 1969, and another son, Patrick. In 1990, Buechner married Nancy Chanitz and had another son, Charles. They lived in McLean, Virginia. Nancy died in 2006. Buechner married Andrea Dravo, an attorney, in 2009. They lived in Washington, D.C. prior to Buechner's death in 2020. Buechner died on March 6, 2020 in Washington, D.C..
