RightDataUSA


Floyd Fithian

[Congressional biography]

Born: November 3, 1928 in Vesta, NE
Died: June 27, 2003 in Annandale, VA (Parkinson's disease)

Education:

  • Peru State College, B.A., 1951
  • University of Nebraska, M.A., 1955, Ph.D., 1964

Military Service:

  • U.S. Navy, 1951-1955
  • U.S. Navy Reserve, 1955-1971

Elected Office:

  • Teacher/professor
  • Farmer
  • Chief of Staff, IL Sen. Paul Simon, 1983-1992
  • Manager, Paul Simon presidential campaign, 1988
  • Asst. to TX Sen. Lloyd Bentsen as head of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, 1983-1985


Election Results for Floyd Fithian


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

YearAgeStatePartyOfficeDistrictStagePosVotes%
1972 43 IN D U.S. House District 02 Primary 1 28,292 100.0%
1972 43 IN D U.S. House District 02 General 2 91,533 45.3%
1974 45 IN D U.S. House District 02 General 1 101,856 61.1%
1976 47 IN D U.S. House District 02 Primary 1 39,572 100.0%
1976 47 IN D U.S. House District 02 General 1 117,617 54.8%
1978 49 IN D U.S. House District 02 General 1 82,402 56.5%
1980 51 IN D U.S. House District 02 Primary 1 41,435 100.0%
1980 51 IN D U.S. House District 02 General 1 122,326 54.1%
1982 53 IN D U.S. Senate Class 1 Primary 1 262,644 59.5%
1982 53 IN D U.S. Senate Class 1 General 2 828,400 45.6%


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



Ideology Data for Floyd Fithian


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 46 House 37 55 69 24 R 28 69 92 76 31
1976 47 House 44 46 61 28 R 22 73 88 44 38
1977 48 House 44 48 60 29 D 63 24 90 59 20
1978 49 House 52 46 60 39 D 64 33 95 25 42
1979 50 House 44 53 73 24 D 70 26 95 53 26
1980 51 House 45 49 67 29 D 62 33 92 59 12
1981 52 House 36 37 60 18 R 32 50 77 69 17
1982 53 House 25 63 66 17 R 23 52 79 84 21
Lifetime conservative rating:   28%


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.