RightDataUSA


William Cotter

[Congressional biography]

Born: July 18, 1926 in Hartford, CT
Died: September 8, 1981 in East Lyme, CT

Education:

  • Trinity College, B.A., 1949

Career:

  • Aide to CT Gov. Abraham Ribicoff, 1955-1957
  • CT deputy Insurance Commissioner, 1957-1964

Elected Office:

  • Hartford city council, 1953
  • CT Insurance Commissioner, 1964-1970


Election Results for William Cotter


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

YearAgeStatePartyOfficeDistrictStagePosVotes%
1970 43 CT D U.S. House District 01 General 1 88,374 48.7%
1972 45 CT D U.S. House District 01 General 1 130,701 56.9%
1974 47 CT D U.S. House District 01 General 1 117,038 62.7%
1976 49 CT D U.S. House District 01 General 1 128,479 57.1%
1978 51 CT D U.S. House District 01 General 1 102,749 59.5%
1980 53 CT D U.S. House District 01 General 1 137,849 63.0%


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



Ideology Data for William Cotter


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 44 House 26 64 68 19 R 46 46 82 76 17
1972 45 House 28 62 73 19 R 51 38 86 71 11
1973 46 House 22 74 78 16 R 29 65 89 80 26
1974 47 House 22 64 73 11 R 43 49 85 57* 10
1975 48 House 25 70 83 13 R 34 62 92 89 11
1976 49 House 22 64 74 14 R 29 61 84 67 12
1977 50 House 25 59 67 13 D 56 14 77 58 15
1978 51 House 28 61 66 21 D 66 21 80 50 25
1979 52 House 35 58 71 15 D 72 20 83 68 16
1980 53 House 41 44 63 20 D 62 26 80 47 29
1981 54 House 0 0 5 0 R 3 0 4 0 0
Lifetime conservative rating:   17%


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.