RightDataUSA


Tom Corcoran

[Congressional biography]

Born: May 23, 1939 in Ottawa, IL

Education:

  • University of Notre Dame, B.A., 1961

Military Service:

  • U.S. Army, 1963-1965

Career:

  • State of Illinois Office director in Washington, D.C., 1969-1972
  • Assistant to IL Senate president, 1973-1974
  • VP of Chicago-North Western Transportation Co., 1974-1976


Election Results for Tom Corcoran


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

YearAgeStatePartyOfficeDistrictStagePosVotes%
1974 35 IL R U.S. House District 15 Primary 2 9,834 22.8%
1976 37 IL R U.S. House District 15 Primary 1 18,798 39.3%
1976 37 IL R U.S. House District 15 General 1 102,555 53.9%
1978 39 IL R U.S. House District 15 General 1 80,856 62.4%
1980 41 IL R U.S. House District 15 General 1 150,898 76.7%
1982 43 IL R U.S. House District 14 Primary 1 33,355 79.0%
1982 43 IL R U.S. House District 14 General 1 98,262 64.6%
1984 45 IL R U.S. Senate Class 2 Primary 2 239,847 36.7%


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



Ideology Data for Tom Corcoran


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 38 House 93 6 87 10 D 42 58 97 15 95
1978 39 House 77 16 79 16 D 38 54 95 25 83
1979 40 House 88 10 81 16 D 38 61 97 16 87
1980 41 House 87 11 86 13 D 43 51 95 6 74
1981 42 House 75 15 77 16 R 70 22 92 21 92
1982 43 House 97 3 93 5 R 87 13 97 0 86
1983 44 House 73 6 74 6 R 70 10 77 5 90
1984 45 House 83 3 69 9 R 69 15 79 5 78
Lifetime conservative rating:   86%


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.