RightDataUSA


Bill Bradley

[Congressional biography]

Born: July 28, 1943 in Crystal City, MO

Education:

  • Princeton University, B.A., 1965
  • Rhodes Scholar, Oxford University, M.A., 1968

Military Service:

  • U.S. Air Force Reserve, 1967-1978

Career:

  • Member of U.S. Olympic basketball team, 1964
  • Professional basketball player, 1967-1977
  • Businessman

Elected Office:

  • Candidate for Democrat nomination for President, 2000


Election Results for Bill Bradley


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

YearAgeStatePartyOfficeDistrictStagePosVotes%
1978 34 NJ D U.S. Senate Class 2 Primary 1 217,502 58.9%
1978 34 NJ D U.S. Senate Class 2 General 1 1,082,960 55.3%
1984 40 NJ D U.S. Senate Class 2 Primary 1 404,301 92.9%
1984 40 NJ D U.S. Senate Class 2 General 1 1,986,644 64.2%
1990 46 NJ D U.S. Senate Class 2 Primary 1 197,454 92.4%
1990 46 NJ D U.S. Senate Class 2 General 1 977,810 50.4%


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



Ideology Data for Bill Bradley


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
1979 35 Senate 11 85 87 9 D 88 10 96 68 6
1980 36 Senate 6 75 72 12 D 65 23 85 87 6
1981 37 Senate 11 77 80 10 R 44 48 90 90 7
1982 38 Senate 14 85 87 13 R 37 63 99 100 16
1983 39 Senate 23 75 82 18 R 42 58 97 85 16
1984 40 Senate 28 60 66 25 R 42 45 86 89 35
1985 41 Senate 17 73 69 23 R 33 59 91 89 10
1986 42 Senate 36 61 66 24 R 51 48 92 85 20
1987 43 Senate 38 56 81 12 R 32 55 91 89 21
1988 44 Senate 22 70 81 9 R 48 45 91 88 9
1989 45 Senate 16 74 82 14 R 46 51 95 89 17
1990 46 Senate 14 86 80 19 R 32 66 99 94 13
1991 47 Senate 15 83 84 11 R 32 64 95 90 10
1992 48 Senate 18 74 80 10 R 23 68 91 94 4
1993 49 Senate 10 85 88 8 D 88 9 96 90 13
1994 50 Senate 6 88 79 15 D 73 18 95 94 4
1995 51 Senate 5 81 82 9 D 80 10 91 100 5
1996 52 Senate 26 71 81 12 D 85 12 92 94 5
Lifetime conservative rating:   12%


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.