RightDataUSA


John Burton

[Congressional biography]

Born: December 15, 1932 in Cincinnati, OH

Education:

  • San Francisco State College, B.A., 1954
  • University of San Francisco, LL.B., 1960

Military Service:

  • U.S. Army, 1954-1956

Career:

  • Lawyer

Elected Office:

  • CA Assembly, 1965-1974, 1988-1996
  • CA Senate, 1996-2004

Other notes:

  • Brother of Phillip Burton


Election Results for John Burton


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

YearAgeStatePartyOfficeDistrictStagePosVotes%
1968 35 CA R U.S. House District 08 Primary 3 7,261 17.9%
1970 37 CA D U.S. House District 08 Primary 3 6,130 10.4%
1974 41 CA D U.S. House District 05 Primary 1 50,567 70.6%
1974 41 CA D U.S. House District 06 Special 1 73,114 50.0%
1974 41 CA D U.S. House District 05 General 1 88,909 59.6%
1976 43 CA D U.S. House District 05 Primary 1 62,325 100.0%
1976 43 CA D U.S. House District 05 General 1 103,746 61.8%
1978 45 CA D U.S. House District 05 Primary 1 67,129 100.0%
1978 45 CA D U.S. House District 05 General 1 106,046 66.8%
1980 47 CA D U.S. House District 05 Primary 1 59,735 100.0%
1980 47 CA D U.S. House District 05 General 1 101,105 51.1%


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



Ideology Data for John Burton


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
1974 41 House 2 88 88 4 R 14 86 93 91 14
1975 42 House 7 85 82 9 R 24 67 87 95* 6
1976 43 House 6 83 81 6 R 20 71 88 100 6
1977 44 House 7 85 73 11 D 71 16 80 100 11
1978 45 House 7 79 73 12 D 63 21 77 95 5
1979 46 House 10 77 62 13 D 49 23 67 94 6
1980 47 House 13 81 72 18 D 51 40 89 100 17
1981 48 House 1 76 59 5 R 18 45 63 100 0
1982 49 House 1 29 25 1 R 4 18 25 83 17
Lifetime conservative rating:   8%


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.