RightDataUSA


Lawton Chiles

[Congressional biography]

Born: April 3, 1930 in Lakeland, FL
Died: November 22, 1998 in Tallahassee, FL

Education:

  • University of Florida, 1952, Law School, 1955

Military Service:

  • U.S. Army, 1953-1954

Career:

  • Lawyer
  • Businessman/banker

Elected Office:

  • FL House, 1958-1966
  • FL Senate, 1966-1970


Election Results for Lawton Chiles


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

YearAgeStatePartyOfficeDistrictStagePosVotes%
1970 40 FL D U.S. Senate Class 1 Primary 2 188,300 25.8%
1970 40 FL D U.S. Senate Class 1 Primary Runoff 1 474,420 65.7%
1970 40 FL D U.S. Senate Class 1 General 1 902,438 53.9%
1976 46 FL D U.S. Senate Class 1 General 1 1,799,518 63.0%
1982 52 FL D U.S. Senate Class 1 General 1 1,637,667 61.7%
1990 60 FL D Governor Primary 1 746,325 69.5%
1990 60 FL D Governor General 1 1,995,206 56.5%
1994 64 FL D Governor Primary 1 603,657 72.2%
1994 64 FL D Governor General 1 2,135,008 50.8%


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



Ideology Data for Lawton Chiles


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
1971 41 Senate 52 34 53 26 R 45 44 81 65 50
1972 42 Senate 47 39 53 34 R 61 33 86 40 42
1973 43 Senate 33 53 71 18 R 39 52 90 78 24
1974 44 Senate 55 37 55 37 R 46 46 92 43 31
1975 45 Senate 75 20 50 44 R 65 26 92 39* 50
1976 46 Senate 59 33 54 38 R 45 34 86 45 51
1977 47 Senate 80 17 43 54 D 67 25 97 35 49
1978 48 Senate 61 37 63 34 D 66 30 97 35 33
1979 49 Senate 51 37 76 15 D 74 17 90 44 21
1980 50 Senate 68 24 65 31 D 75 23 96 53 42
1981 51 Senate 74 21 70 25 R 55 37 94 47 21
1982 52 Senate 83 15 59 37 R 63 32 97 50 67
1983 53 Senate 64 34 69 30 R 48 49 96 63 21
1984 54 Senate 77 21 61 37 R 57 35 96 68 50
1985 55 Senate 60 13 59 20 R 40 46 83 55 37
1986 56 Senate 76 22 56 43 R 57 39 95 40 52
1987 57 Senate 81 16 79 19 R 42 55 95 55 24
1988 58 Senate 43 30 77 10 R 39 40 80 63 22
Lifetime conservative rating:   38%


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.