RightDataUSA


Ben Erdreich

[Congressional biography]

Born: December 9, 1938 in Birmingham, AL

Education:

  • Yale University, B.A., 1960
  • University of Alabama, J.D., 1963

Military Service:

  • U.S. Army, 1963-1965

Career:

  • Lawyer

Elected Office:

  • AL House, 1970-1974
  • Jefferson County commissioner, 1974-1982


Election Results for Ben Erdreich


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

YearAgeStatePartyOfficeDistrictStagePosVotes%
1972 33 AL D U.S. House District 06 Primary 1 36,513 81.1%
1972 33 AL D U.S. House District 06 General 2 54,497 35.6%
1982 43 AL D U.S. House District 06 General 1 88,029 53.2%
1984 45 AL D U.S. House District 06 Primary 1 44,188 87.8%
1984 45 AL D U.S. House District 06 General 1 130,973 59.6%
1986 47 AL D U.S. House District 06 General 1 139,608 72.7%
1988 49 AL D U.S. House District 06 General 1 138,920 66.5%
1990 51 AL D U.S. House District 06 General 1 134,412 92.2%
1992 53 AL D U.S. House District 06 General 2 126,062 45.0%


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



Ideology Data for Ben Erdreich


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 44 House 78 21 56 40 R 37 63 96 50 55
1984 45 House 81 10 52 41 R 50 45 95 25 57
1985 46 House 76 22 68 28 R 52 48 97 35 47
1986 47 House 82 16 67 29 R 40 59 97 55 52
1987 48 House 91 9 66 33 R 40 60 99 40 30
1988 49 House 84 16 70 30 R 38 62 100 50 60
1989 50 House 85 15 71 29 R 49 50 99 55 46
1990 51 House 83 17 73 27 R 37 63 100 39 54
1991 52 House 86 14 72 26 R 40 60 99 40 45
1992 53 House 94 6 63 36 R 44 54 99 45 58
Lifetime conservative rating:   51%


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.