RightDataUSA


Alan Cranston

[Congressional biography]

Born: June 19, 1914 in Palo Alto, CA
Died: December 31, 2000 in Los Altos, CA

Education:

  • Stanford University, B.A., 1936

Military Service:

  • U.S. Army, World War II

Career:

  • Reporter for International News Service, 1936-1938
  • Office of War Information, 1940-1944
  • Real estate businessman, 1947-1967

Elected Office:

  • CA Comptroller, 1958-1966

Other notes:

  • Reprimanded for improper conduct ("Keating 5" scandal) by Senate Ethics Committee in November, 1991


Election Results for Alan Cranston


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

YearAgeStatePartyOfficeDistrictStagePosVotes%
1962 48 CA D Controller Primary 1 1,762,367 100.0%
1962 48 CA R (write-in) Controller Primary 2 2,956 0.2%
1962 48 CA D Controller General 1 3,372,691 60.2%
1964 50 CA D U.S. Senate Class 1 Primary 2 1,037,748 39.0%
1966 52 CA D Controller Primary 1 1,866,771 75.8%
1966 52 CA D Controller General 2 3,125,070 49.5%
1968 54 CA D U.S. Senate Class 3 Primary 1 1,681,825 59.0%
1968 54 CA D U.S. Senate Class 3 General 1 3,680,352 51.8%
1974 60 CA D U.S. Senate Class 3 Primary 1 2,262,574 83.5%
1974 60 CA D U.S. Senate Class 3 General 1 3,693,160 60.5%
1980 66 CA D U.S. Senate Class 3 Primary 1 2,608,746 80.0%
1980 66 CA D U.S. Senate Class 3 General 1 4,705,399 56.5%
1986 72 CA D U.S. Senate Class 3 Primary 1 1,807,242 80.7%
1986 72 CA D U.S. Senate Class 3 General 1 3,646,672 49.3%


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



Ideology Data for Alan Cranston


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
1969 55 Senate 13 74 78 9 R 47 32 83 81 0
1970 56 Senate 16 72 73 17 R 47 33 88 100 5
1971 57 Senate 8 86 80 13 R 35 60 91 96 0
1972 58 Senate 7 87 86 8 R 35 61 91 95 0
1973 59 Senate 13 76 82 5 R 32 56 88 89 4
1974 60 Senate 6 90 87 9 R 33 63 92 95 6
1975 61 Senate 13 86 92 7 R 40 57 98 89* 6
1976 62 Senate 11 79 84 6 R 34 58 86 84 7
1977 63 Senate 20 74 81 10 D 80 16 92 89 11
1978 64 Senate 11 87 88 8 D 87 13 94 85 17
1979 65 Senate 15 81 82 13 D 77 16 95 83 3
1980 66 Senate 6 89 81 6 D 63 10 85 88 7
1981 67 Senate 10 74 77 10 R 38 48 88 89 0
1982 68 Senate 7 84 81 10 R 26 66 89 95 5
1983 69 Senate 7 52 55 7 R 28 40 56 100 0
1984 70 Senate 13 72 74 7 R 19 61 78 100 0
1985 71 Senate 18 78 80 16 R 25 73 96 100 5
1986 72 Senate 9 86 85 9 R 20 78 94 100 11
1987 73 Senate 9 88 93 4 R 36 58 95 79 0
1988 74 Senate 14 78 86 6 R 33 52 89 95 0
1989 75 Senate 13 87 95 4 R 50 50 99 85 4
1990 76 Senate 11 86 90 8 R 27 73 98 100 0
1991 77 Senate 15 65 78 7 R 23 53 83 100 0
1992 78 Senate 13 82 83 6 R 33 58 90 95 4
Lifetime conservative rating:   4%


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.