RightDataUSA


Al D'Amato

[Congressional biography]

Born: August 1, 1937 in Brooklyn, NY

Education:

  • Syracuse University, B.S., 1959, J.D., 1961

Career:

  • Lawyer
  • Nassau County administrator, 1965-1968
  • Hempstead tax assessor, 1969

Elected Office:

  • Hempstead town supervisor, 1971-1977
  • Nassau County supervisor, 1977-1980


Election Results for Al D'Amato


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

YearAgeStatePartyOfficeDistrictStagePosVotes%
1980 42 NY R U.S. Senate Class 3 Primary 1 323,468 55.7%
1980 42 NY R U.S. Senate Class 3 General 1 2,699,652 44.9%
1986 48 NY R U.S. Senate Class 3 General 1 2,378,197 56.9%
1992 54 NY R U.S. Senate Class 3 General 1 3,166,994 49.0%
1998 60 NY R U.S. Senate Class 3 General 2 2,058,988 44.1%


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



Ideology Data for Al D'Amato


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
1981 43 Senate 78 17 81 13 R 82 14 94 11 67
1982 44 Senate 78 17 76 22 R 71 26 97 15 58
1983 45 Senate 70 27 67 30 R 67 28 86 21 44
1984 46 Senate 72 19 67 25 R 68 25 93 32 85
1985 47 Senate 88 8 69 28 R 71 28 97 20 62
1986 48 Senate 66 30 66 32 R 77 23 98 35 67
1987 49 Senate 69 28 65 33 R 58 38 97 30 56
1988 50 Senate 84 16 70 28 R 68 30 97 15 80
1989 51 Senate 66 32 52 46 R 67 32 99 35 46
1990 52 Senate 65 32 68 32 R 68 31 99 28 70
1991 53 Senate 80 20 75 25 R 79 21 99 15 86
1992 54 Senate 42 45 59 36 R 58 38 96 32 50
1993 55 Senate 78 20 82 15 D 28 69 97 37 80
1994 56 Senate 81 16 79 18 D 34 65 96 21 92
1995 57 Senate 88 11 90 10 D 29 70 99 15 78
1996 58 Senate 84 11 85 13 D 46 49 97 25 75
1997 59 Senate 64 36 67 33 D 54 37 97 35 58
1998 60 Senate 63 38 60 37 D 56 38 97 47 48
Lifetime conservative rating:   66%


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.