RightDataUSA


Ben Chandler

[Congressional biography]

Born: September 12, 1959 in Versailles, KY

Education:

  • University of Kentucky, B.A., J.D.

Career:

  • Lawyer

Elected Office:

  • KY Auditor, 1991-1995
  • KY Attorney General, 1995-2003

Other notes:

  • Grandson of A.B. 'Happy' Chandler



Election Results for Ben Chandler


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

YearAgeStatePartyOfficeDistrictStagePosVotes%
1991 31 KY D Auditor Primary 1 213,023 58.2%
1991 31 KY D Auditor General 1 465,119 64.9%
1995 35 KY D Attorney General General 1 560,526 59.9%
1999 39 KY D Attorney General General 1 403,223 100.0%
2003 43 KY D Governor Primary 1 143,150 32.7%
2003 43 KY D Governor General 2 487,159 45.0%
2004 44 KY D U.S. House District 06 Special 1 84,168 55.2%
2004 44 KY D U.S. House District 06 General 1 175,355 58.6%
2006 46 KY D U.S. House District 06 General 1 158,765 85.5%
2008 48 KY D U.S. House District 06 General 1 203,764 64.7%
2010 50 KY D U.S. House District 06 General 1 119,812 50.1%
2012 52 KY D U.S. House District 06 General 2 141,438 46.7%


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




Ideology Data for Ben Chandler


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
2004 44 House 75 20 R 42 48 95 74 32
2005 45 House 80 20 R 50 50 99 84 36
2006 46 House 82 17 R 55 42 98 63 50
2007 47 House 92 6 R 8 90 98 95 8
2008 48 House 93 6 R 20 80 99 85 12
2009 49 House 88 6 D 93 7 98 84 20
2010 50 House 87 10 D 78 20 98 65 17
2011 51 House 66 32 D 64 34 98 60 12
2012 52 House 69 30 D 47 51 97 42 46
Lifetime conservative rating:   26%


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.