RightDataUSA


Thomas Downey

[Congressional biography]

Born: January 28, 1949 in Ozone Park, NY

Education:

  • Cornell University, B.S., 1970
  • American University, J.D., 1978

Elected Office:

  • Suffolk County legislature, 1972-1974


Election Results for Thomas Downey


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

YearAgeStatePartyOfficeDistrictStagePosVotes%
1974 25 NY D U.S. House District 02 General 1 58,289 48.8%
1976 27 NY D U.S. House District 02 Primary 1 8,066 87.9%
1976 27 NY D U.S. House District 02 General 1 91,241 57.1%
1978 29 NY D U.S. House District 02 General 1 64,807 54.9%
1980 31 NY D U.S. House District 02 General 1 84,035 56.3%
1982 33 NY D U.S. House District 02 General 1 80,951 63.9%
1984 35 NY D U.S. House District 02 General 1 97,648 54.7%
1986 37 NY D U.S. House District 02 General 1 69,771 64.3%
1988 39 NY D U.S. House District 02 General 1 107,646 61.6%
1990 41 NY D U.S. House District 02 General 1 56,722 55.8%
1992 43 NY D U.S. House District 02 General 2 96,328 46.8%


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



Ideology Data for Thomas Downey


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
1975 26 House 9 90 88 11 R 33 66 99 100* 11
1976 27 House 25 73 82 15 R 29 67 98 80 11
1977 28 House 8 85 82 9 D 78 16 92 85 8
1978 29 House 11 84 83 12 D 76 20 94 65 4
1979 30 House 10 84 86 7 D 75 17 89 94 3
1980 31 House 8 85 87 7 D 69 23 92 100 11
1981 32 House 12 81 84 7 R 29 63 93 89 0
1982 33 House 11 88 92 4 R 38 58 94 100 0
1983 34 House 10 84 90 4 R 26 71 94 89 5
1984 35 House 5 93 92 4 R 29 67 95 100 4
1985 36 House 9 87 91 4 R 21 75 95 94 6
1986 37 House 16 80 91 4 R 18 81 95 95 5
1987 38 House 12 86 93 3 R 21 78 96 96 9
1988 39 House 8 92 93 4 R 23 77 98 100 0
1989 40 House 7 93 96 1 R 28 72 98 95 0
1990 41 House 6 94 93 4 R 19 81 98 100 8
1991 42 House 8 92 96 3 R 25 75 98 85 0
1992 43 House 21 73 91 5 R 19 80 96 89 4
Lifetime conservative rating:   5%


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.