RightDataUSA


Bill Dickinson

[Congressional biography]

Born: June 5, 1925 in Opelika, AL
Died: March 31, 2008 in Montgomery, AL

Education:

  • University of Alabama, J.D., 1950

Military Service:

  • U.S. Navy, 1943-1946
  • U.S. Air Force Reserve

Career:

  • Lawyer
  • Opelika city judge, 1952-1954
  • Lee County judge, 1954-1958
  • AL circuit court judge, 1958-1962
  • Assistant VP of Southern Railway System, 1962-1964

Elected Office:

  • Opelika Board of Education, 1954-1962


Election Results for Bill Dickinson


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

YearAgeStatePartyOfficeDistrictStagePosVotes%
1964 39 AL R U.S. House District 02 General 1 49,936 61.7%
1966 41 AL R U.S. House District 02 General 1 49,203 54.6%
1968 43 AL R U.S. House District 02 General 1 60,743 55.4%
1970 45 AL R U.S. House District 02 General 1 62,316 61.4%
1972 47 AL R U.S. House District 02 General 1 80,362 54.9%
1974 49 AL R U.S. House District 02 General 1 54,089 66.1%
1976 51 AL R U.S. House District 02 General 1 90,069 57.6%
1978 53 AL R U.S. House District 02 General 1 57,924 54.0%
1980 55 AL R U.S. House District 02 General 1 104,796 60.6%
1982 57 AL R U.S. House District 02 General 1 83,290 50.4%
1984 59 AL R U.S. House District 02 General 1 118,153 60.3%
1986 61 AL R U.S. House District 02 General 1 115,302 66.7%
1988 63 AL R U.S. House District 02 General 1 120,408 94.2%
1990 65 AL R U.S. House District 02 General 1 87,649 51.3%


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



Ideology Data for Bill Dickinson


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
1965 40 House 80 2 79 3 D 22 66 85 0 100
1966 41 House 59 0 61 0 D 15 46 61 0 100
1967 42 House 74 2 76 4 D 28 51 78 0 100
1968 43 House 78 2 67 9 D 35 48 79 0 96
1969 44 House 82 2 73 18 R 60 32 88 0 79
1970 45 House 89 0 71 18 R 52 32 82 6 88
1971 46 House 93 3 82 12 R 74 19 92 3 90
1972 47 House 77 2 74 8 R 43 24 81 0 88
1973 48 House 89 3 78 14 R 70 22 91 4 96
1974 49 House 82 2 77 8 R 60 28 86 5 82
1975 50 House 85 4 78 10 R 64 27 89 5* 83
1976 51 House 92 1 88 6 R 76 18 92 0 97
1977 52 House 81 4 74 12 D 32 56 84 6 94
1978 53 House 84 5 74 12 D 21 62 84 5 88
1979 54 House 88 5 82 11 D 20 72 91 6 95
1980 55 House 79 5 80 11 D 32 56 89 12 89
1981 56 House 81 7 77 14 R 72 16 86 5 100
1982 57 House 89 4 76 11 R 75 14 87 0 100
1983 58 House 83 10 75 17 R 78 16 90 5 77
1984 59 House 90 5 72 18 R 64 26 90 10 84
1985 60 House 85 9 76 17 R 63 36 93 11 61
1986 61 House 88 2 78 14 R 71 22 92 16 86
1987 62 House 84 5 78 13 R 64 26 92 19 76
1988 63 House 95 3 83 9 R 63 34 93 21 92
1989 64 House 90 2 80 12 R 71 16 92 6 85
1990 65 House 94 4 82 12 R 66 31 94 0 88
1991 66 House 95 0 79 12 R 72 23 91 5 85
1992 67 House 83 8 73 11 R 64 19 84 11 96
Lifetime conservative rating:   89%


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.