RightDataUSA


Les Aspin

[Congressional biography]

Born: July 21, 1938 in Milwaukee, WI
Died: May 21, 1995 in Washington, DC

Education:

  • Yale University, B.A., 1960
  • Oxford University, M.A., 1962
  • Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Ph.D., 1965

Military Service:

  • U.S. Army, 1966-1968

Career:

  • Assistant to Sen. William Proxmire, 1960
  • Assistant to President's Council of Economic Advisers, 1963
  • Campaign director for Sen. William Proxmire, 1964
  • Economics professor at Marquette University, 1969-1970
  • U.S. Secretary of Defense, 1993-1994

Elected Office:

  • Candidate for Wi Treasurer, 1968


Election Results for Les Aspin


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

YearAgeStatePartyOfficeDistrictStagePosVotes%
1970 31 WI D U.S. House District 01 Primary 1 15,185 39.8%
1970 31 WI D U.S. House District 01 General 1 87,428 60.9%
1972 33 WI D U.S. House District 01 Primary 1 28,211 90.6%
1972 33 WI D U.S. House District 01 General 1 122,973 64.4%
1974 35 WI D U.S. House District 01 Primary 1 28,055 100.0%
1974 35 WI D U.S. House District 01 General 1 81,902 70.5%
1976 37 WI D U.S. House District 01 Primary 1 38,673 100.0%
1976 37 WI D U.S. House District 01 General 1 136,162 64.9%
1978 39 WI D U.S. House District 01 Primary 1 29,977 100.0%
1978 39 WI D U.S. House District 01 General 1 77,146 54.5%
1980 41 WI D U.S. House District 01 Primary 1 27,619 100.0%
1980 41 WI D U.S. House District 01 General 1 126,222 56.2%
1982 43 WI D U.S. House District 01 Primary 1 45,235 100.0%
1982 43 WI D U.S. House District 01 General 1 95,055 61.0%
1984 45 WI D U.S. House District 01 Primary 1 31,005 100.0%
1984 45 WI D U.S. House District 01 General 1 127,184 56.2%
1986 47 WI D U.S. House District 01 Primary 1 23,852 100.0%
1986 47 WI D U.S. House District 01 General 1 106,288 74.3%
1988 49 WI D U.S. House District 01 Primary 1 40,906 100.0%
1988 49 WI D U.S. House District 01 General 1 158,552 76.2%
1990 51 WI D U.S. House District 01 Primary 1 16,781 86.1%
1990 51 WI D U.S. House District 01 General 1 93,961 99.4%
1992 53 WI D U.S. House District 01 Primary 1 32,815 100.0%
1992 53 WI D U.S. House District 01 General 1 147,495 57.6%


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



Ideology Data for Les Aspin


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
1971 32 House 3 87 84 10 R 35 58 90 97 0
1972 33 House 13 83 83 11 R 46 43 90 94 0
1973 34 House 7 84 84 9 R 24 65 83 92 13
1974 35 House 7 80 78 13 R 42 53 88 96 5
1975 36 House 13 79 79 11 R 38 57 91 100 9
1976 37 House 13 76 80 8 R 29 59 88 79 10
1977 38 House 12 75 80 8 D 68 20 86 79 12
1978 39 House 11 85 84 10 D 81 12 91 60 4
1979 40 House 26 68 81 14 D 77 20 93 83 16
1980 41 House 21 77 85 9 D 82 13 90 75 11
1981 42 House 25 68 80 11 R 26 67 90 83 0
1982 43 House 41 53 77 15 R 42 48 92 94 10
1983 44 House 29 67 84 9 R 30 63 89 84 14
1984 45 House 42 54 73 16 R 40 51 89 75 18
1985 46 House 44 49 82 9 R 33 60 89 70 11
1986 47 House 42 48 83 8 R 28 64 91 56 24
1987 48 House 44 51 81 5 R 22 72 84 79 0
1988 49 House 37 50 78 6 R 25 69 86 83 4
1989 50 House 41 51 70 14 R 41 38 83 68 8
1990 51 House 48 46 83 10 R 24 70 91 61 8
1991 52 House 51 49 79 14 R 38 54 92 60 32
1992 53 House 56 42 84 11 R 29 67 95 90 13
Lifetime conservative rating:   11%


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.