RightDataUSA


Brian Donnelly

[Congressional biography]

Born: March 2, 1946 in Boston, MA
Died: February 28, 2023 in East Dennis, MA

Education:

  • Catholic Memorial High School (West Roxbury, MA), 1963
  • Boston University, B.S., 1970

Career:

  • School teacher/coach, 1969-1972
  • U.S. Ambassador to Trinidad and Tobago, 1994-1997

Elected Office:

  • MA House, 1973-1978


Election Results for Brian Donnelly


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

YearAgeStatePartyOfficeDistrictStagePosVotes%
1978 32 MA D U.S. House District 11 Primary 1 39,236 43.2%
1978 32 MA D U.S. House District 11 General 1 133,644 91.7%
1980 34 MA D U.S. House District 11 Primary 1 42,310 100.0%
1980 34 MA D U.S. House District 11 General 1 137,066 100.0%
1982 36 MA D U.S. House District 11 Primary 1 94,332 100.0%
1982 36 MA D U.S. House District 11 General 1 144,132 100.0%
1984 38 MA D U.S. House District 11 Primary 1 62,480 91.3%
1984 38 MA D U.S. House District 11 General 1 172,010 100.0%
1986 40 MA D U.S. House District 11 Primary 1 46,571 88.1%
1986 40 MA D U.S. House District 11 General 1 114,926 100.0%
1988 42 MA D U.S. House District 11 Primary 1 40,122 85.7%
1988 42 MA D U.S. House District 11 General 1 169,692 80.8%
1990 44 MA D U.S. House District 11 Primary 1 79,089 99.9%
1990 44 MA D U.S. House District 11 General 1 145,480 99.7%
1998 52 MA D Governor Primary 3 101,984 17.0%


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



Ideology Data for Brian Donnelly


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
1979 33 House 44 53 60 33 D 54 44 93 63 38
1980 34 House 20 67 80 12 D 60 30 87 81 16
1981 35 House 25 63 81 10 R 33 55 87 78 18
1982 36 House 33 60 84 13 R 38 60 93 84 14
1983 37 House 22 75 84 12 R 17 80 96 80 9
1984 38 House 24 71 83 7 R 35 56 90 75 9
1985 39 House 24 73 90 6 R 26 74 96 80 5
1986 40 House 18 82 86 4 R 18 79 92 75 14
1987 41 House 35 60 83 8 R 20 74 91 86 5
1988 42 House 18 66 86 8 R 15 69 84 85 8
1989 43 House 37 61 85 9 R 33 63 94 75 11
1990 44 House 35 56 82 11 R 26 71 93 61 29
1991 45 House 30 65 84 12 R 25 67 95 79 15
1992 46 House 23 60 78 8 R 19 68 86 75 17
Lifetime conservative rating:   16%


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.