RightDataUSA


Buddy Darden

[Congressional biography]

Born: November 22, 1943 in Hancock County, GA

Education:

  • University of Georgia, A.B., 1965, J.D., 1967

Career:

  • Lawyer
  • Cobb County assistant district attorney, 1968-1972
  • Cobb County district attorney, 1973-1976

Elected Office:

  • GA House, 1980-1983


Election Results for Buddy Darden


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

YearAgeStatePartyOfficeDistrictStagePosVotes%
1983 39 GA D U.S. House District 07 Special Open Primary 2 22,951 27.6%
1983 39 GA D U.S. House District 07 Special 1 52,267 57.3%
1984 40 GA D U.S. House District 07 Primary 1 50,742 100.0%
1984 40 GA D U.S. House District 07 General 1 106,586 55.2%
1986 42 GA D U.S. House District 07 Primary 1 40,835 100.0%
1986 42 GA D U.S. House District 07 General 1 88,636 66.4%
1988 44 GA D U.S. House District 07 General 1 135,056 64.8%
1990 46 GA D U.S. House District 07 Primary 1 72,984 100.0%
1990 46 GA D U.S. House District 07 General 1 95,817 60.1%
1992 48 GA D U.S. House District 07 General 1 111,374 57.3%
1994 50 GA D U.S. House District 07 Primary 1 29,894 100.0%
1994 50 GA D U.S. House District 07 General 2 65,978 48.1%
2002 58 GA D U.S. House District 11 Primary 2 18,623 47.7%


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



Ideology Data for Buddy Darden


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
1983 39 House 3 4 R 3 1 10 100 67
1984 40 House 86 12 58 39 R 48 51 97 30 57
1985 41 House 87 13 67 31 R 51 46 98 15 68
1986 42 House 80 8 60 37 R 49 48 97 11 81
1987 43 House 91 9 68 30 R 43 57 98 48 39
1988 44 House 92 5 75 25 R 41 58 98 47 50
1989 45 House 90 7 72 28 R 56 42 99 35 43
1990 46 House 87 13 75 24 R 43 57 99 28 58
1991 47 House 89 11 81 18 R 49 50 98 40 35
1992 48 House 79 21 81 17 R 30 68 97 70 29
1993 49 House 89 11 87 12 D 92 8 99 45 25
1994 50 House 89 8 86 13 D 87 12 97 37 38
Lifetime conservative rating:   47%


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.