RightDataUSA


Allen Ertel

[Congressional biography]

Born: November 7, 1937 in Williamsport, PA
Died: November 19, 2015 in Williamsport, PA

Education:

  • Dartmouth College, B.A., 1958, M.S., 1959
  • Yale University, LL.B., 1965

Military Service:

  • U.S. Navy, 1959-1962

Career:

  • Lawyer
  • Law clerk, 1965-1966
  • Lycoming County district attorney, 1968-1976

Elected Office:

  • Candidate for PA Attorney General, 1984



Election Results for Allen Ertel


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

YearAgeStatePartyOfficeDistrictStagePosVotes%
1976 38 PA D U.S. House District 17 Primary 1 15,057 40.0%
1976 38 PA D U.S. House District 17 General 1 86,158 50.7%
1978 40 PA D U.S. House District 17 General 1 79,234 59.6%
1980 42 PA D U.S. House District 17 General 1 97,995 60.6%
1982 44 PA D Governor Primary 1 436,251 57.6%
1982 44 PA D Governor General 2 1,772,353 48.1%
1984 46 PA D Attorney General Primary 1 698,376 62.9%
1984 46 PA D Attorney General General 2 2,259,043 49.1%


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




Ideology Data for Allen Ertel


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
1977 39 House 50 46 58 38 D 71 27 95 40 32
1978 40 House 62 34 51 47 D 51 48 98 30 33
1979 41 House 44 51 72 23 D 70 26 95 53 18
1980 42 House 45 55 74 25 D 68 30 98 67 11
1981 43 House 51 47 69 25 R 37 57 94 55 25
1982 44 House 16 34 49 6 R 9 30 47 93 7
Lifetime conservative rating:   23%


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.