RightDataUSA


Chester Atkins

[Congressional biography]

Born: April 14, 1948 in Geneva, Switzerland

Education:

  • Antioch College, B.A., 1970

Elected Office:

  • MA House, 1970-1971
  • MA Senate, 1972-1984



Election Results for Chester Atkins


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

YearAgeStatePartyOfficeDistrictStagePosVotes%
1984 36 MA D U.S. House District 05 Primary 1 43,538 52.9%
1984 36 MA D U.S. House District 05 General 1 120,008 53.4%
1986 38 MA D U.S. House District 05 Primary 1 38,751 100.0%
1986 38 MA D U.S. House District 05 General 1 113,690 99.9%
1988 40 MA D U.S. House District 05 Primary 1 15,567 99.9%
1988 40 MA D U.S. House District 05 General 1 181,860 84.1%
1990 42 MA D U.S. House District 05 Primary 1 60,820 99.8%
1990 42 MA D U.S. House District 05 General 1 110,232 52.2%
1992 44 MA D U.S. House District 05 Primary 2 26,855 34.8%


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




Ideology Data for Chester Atkins


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
1985 37 House 13 82 86 4 R 20 79 93 89 11
1986 38 House 10 88 86 6 R 18 77 92 95 0
1987 39 House 14 86 93 2 R 11 87 95 96 0
1988 40 House 3 97 96 1 R 16 81 96 100 0
1989 41 House 7 93 95 3 R 30 67 96 100 0
1990 42 House 17 83 93 4 R 20 80 97 89 4
1991 43 House 16 84 93 5 R 25 75 98 90 0
1992 44 House 4 94 82 7 R 11 82 89 95 0
Lifetime conservative rating:   2%


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.