RightDataUSA


Adam Benjamin

[Congressional biography]

Born: August 6, 1935 in Gary, IN
Died: September 7, 1982 in Washington, DC

Education:

  • United States Military Academy, B.S., 1958
  • Valparaiso Law School, J.D., 1966

Military Service:

  • U.S. Marine Corps, 1952-1954
  • U.S. Army, 1958-1961

Career:

  • School teacher/computer analyst, 1961-1962
  • Executive secretary to Mayor of Gary, 1965-1967
  • Lawyer

Elected Office:

  • IN House, 1967-1971
  • IN Senate, 1971-1976



Election Results for Adam Benjamin


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

YearAgeStatePartyOfficeDistrictStagePosVotes%
1972 36 IN D U.S. House District 01 Primary 2 43,784 41.9%
1976 40 IN D U.S. House District 01 Primary 1 53,267 56.0%
1976 40 IN D U.S. House District 01 General 1 121,155 71.3%
1978 42 IN D U.S. House District 01 Primary 1 65,062 90.9%
1978 42 IN D U.S. House District 01 General 1 72,367 80.3%
1980 44 IN D U.S. House District 01 Primary 1 61,168 100.0%
1980 44 IN D U.S. House District 01 General 1 112,016 72.0%
1982 46 IN D U.S. House District 01 Primary 1 76,358 100.0%


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




Ideology Data for Adam Benjamin


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
1977 41 House 31 67 73 26 D 61 38 99 53 26
1978 42 House 34 66 72 28 D 62 38 100 65 13
1979 43 House 53 47 73 27 D 66 34 100 47 26
1980 44 House 53 47 70 30 D 61 39 100 61 32
1981 45 House 40 60 88 12 R 42 58 100 60 8
1982 46 House 48 8 R 30 30 61 71 15
Lifetime conservative rating:   22%


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.