RightDataUSA


Mervyn Dymally

[Congressional biography]

Born: May 12, 1926 in Cedros, Trinidad
Died: October 7, 2012 in Los Angeles, CA

Education:

  • California State University, B.A., 1954, M.A., 1969
  • U.S. International University, Ph.D., 1978

Career:

  • School teacher, 1955-1961

Elected Office:

  • CA Assembly, 1963-1966, 2002-2008
  • CA Senate, 1967-1975
  • CA Lt. Governor, 1975-1979
  • Candidate for CA Senate, 2008


Election Results for Mervyn Dymally


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

YearAgeStatePartyOfficeDistrictStagePosVotes%
1974 48 CA D Lt. Governor Primary 1 777,522 29.9%
1974 48 CA D Lt. Governor General 1 2,986,537 49.2%
1978 52 CA D Lt. Governor Primary 1 1,749,277 55.3%
1978 52 CA D Lt. Governor General 2 2,928,329 43.3%
1980 54 CA D U.S. House District 31 Primary 1 29,916 49.1%
1980 54 CA D U.S. House District 31 General 1 69,146 64.4%
1982 56 CA D U.S. House District 31 Primary 1 43,498 77.3%
1982 56 CA D U.S. House District 31 General 1 86,718 72.4%
1984 58 CA D U.S. House District 31 Primary 1 50,844 84.0%
1984 58 CA D U.S. House District 31 General 1 100,658 70.7%
1986 60 CA D U.S. House District 31 Primary 1 40,339 84.5%
1986 60 CA D U.S. House District 31 General 1 77,126 70.2%
1988 62 CA D U.S. House District 31 Primary 1 58,806 85.4%
1988 62 CA D U.S. House District 31 General 1 100,919 71.6%
1990 64 CA D U.S. House District 31 Primary 1 30,416 72.8%
1990 64 CA D U.S. House District 31 General 1 56,394 67.1%


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



Ideology Data for Mervyn Dymally


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 55 House 11 65 66 4 R 29 43 75 92 0
1982 56 House 11 74 78 4 R 22 56 79 82 16
1983 57 House 11 78 82 5 R 16 77 82 100 0
1984 58 House 10 66 65 5 R 24 55 67 95 14
1985 59 House 9 82 63 6 R 15 78 76 100 11
1986 60 House 8 86 92 2 R 13 83 94 100 0
1987 61 House 7 77 82 3 R 10 75 86 95 0
1988 62 House 0 87 83 3 R 16 69 87 100 0
1989 63 House 5 80 88 4 R 29 63 92 90 0
1990 64 House 11 87 87 3 R 11 87 92 100 4
1991 65 House 0 76 74 3 R 21 54 74 100 0
1992 66 House 8 50 51 2 R 9 43 52 90 0
Lifetime conservative rating:   4%


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.