RightDataUSA


Cleve Benedict

[Congressional biography]

Born: March 21, 1935 in Harrisburg, PA

Education:

  • Princeton University, B.A., 1959
  • Graham School for Cattlemen, 1962

Career:

  • Dairy farmer
  • Banker
  • WV Board of Probation and Parole, 1974-1975
  • WV Finance & Administration Commission, 1975-1977
  • U.S. Energy Department, 1983

Elected Office:

  • WV Commissioner of Agriculture, 1989-1993


Election Results for Cleve Benedict


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

YearAgeStatePartyOfficeDistrictStagePosVotes%
1978 43 WV R U.S. House District 02 Primary 1 20,656 100.0%
1978 43 WV R U.S. House District 02 General 2 56,272 44.7%
1980 45 WV R U.S. House District 02 Primary 1 24,593 62.5%
1980 45 WV R U.S. House District 02 General 1 102,805 55.9%
1982 47 WV R U.S. Senate Class 1 Primary 1 73,638 80.9%
1982 47 WV R U.S. Senate Class 1 General 2 173,910 30.8%
1984 49 WV R U.S. House District 02 Primary 1 32,545 100.0%
1984 49 WV R U.S. House District 02 General 2 78,936 44.0%
1988 53 WV R Commissioner of Agriculture Primary 1 112,897 100.0%
1988 53 WV R Commissioner of Agriculture General 1 302,381 51.9%
1992 57 WV R Governor Primary 1 104,169 86.4%
1992 57 WV R Governor General 2 240,390 36.6%


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



Ideology Data for Cleve Benedict


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
1981 46 House 85 8 75 19 R 74 25 93 11 100
1982 47 House 82 12 74 17 R 65 26 90 26 76
Lifetime conservative rating:   86%


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.