RightDataUSA


Slade Gorton

[Congressional biography]

Born: January 8, 1928 in Chicago, IL
Died: August 19, 2020 in Seattle, WA

Education:

  • Dartmouth University, B.A., 1950
  • Columbia University, LL.B., 1953

Military Service:

  • U.S. Army, 1945-1946
  • U.S. Air Force, 1953-1956
  • U.S. Air Force Reserve, 1956-1980

Career:

  • Lawyer

Elected Office:

  • WA House, 1959-1969
  • WA Attorney General, 1969-1981


Election Results for Slade Gorton


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

YearAgeStatePartyOfficeDistrictStagePosVotes%
1968 40 WA R Attorney General Open Primary 1 148,025 22.6%
1968 40 WA R Attorney General General 1 601,594 50.2%
1972 44 WA R Attorney General Open Primary 1 289,004 33.1%
1972 44 WA R Attorney General General 1 771,408 54.3%
1976 48 WA R Attorney General Open Primary 1 438,417 56.8%
1976 48 WA R Attorney General General 1 818,084 56.5%
1980 52 WA R U.S. Senate Class 3 Open Primary 2 315,560 33.1%
1980 52 WA R U.S. Senate Class 3 General 1 936,317 54.2%
1986 58 WA R U.S. Senate Class 3 Open Primary 1 291,735 46.4%
1986 58 WA R U.S. Senate Class 3 General 2 650,931 48.7%
1988 60 WA R U.S. Senate Class 1 Open Primary 1 335,846 35.9%
1988 60 WA R U.S. Senate Class 1 General 1 944,359 51.1%
1994 66 WA R U.S. Senate Class 1 Open Primary 1 492,251 53.0%
1994 66 WA R U.S. Senate Class 1 General 1 947,821 55.7%
2000 72 WA R U.S. Senate Class 1 Open Primary 1 560,787 43.6%
2000 72 WA R U.S. Senate Class 1 General 2 1,197,208 48.6%


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



Ideology Data for Slade Gorton


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 53 Senate 77 21 86 13 R 87 13 99 11 71
1982 54 Senate 76 25 78 22 R 76 25 100 45 47
1983 55 Senate 70 30 76 23 R 85 15 99 35 24
1984 56 Senate 81 19 83 16 R 83 17 99 37 59
1985 57 Senate 70 27 79 17 R 77 19 97 25 62
1986 58 Senate 72 26 74 25 R 73 25 97 37 40
1989 61 Senate 87 13 80 20 R 89 11 100 15 72
1990 62 Senate 86 14 81 19 R 76 24 200 17 78
1991 63 Senate 80 20 82 18 R 86 14 100 30 67
1992 64 Senate 68 26 80 18 R 68 28 98 26 71
1993 65 Senate 90 10 82 17 D 30 67 99 20 84
1994 66 Senate 84 16 76 24 D 48 52 100 30 80
1995 67 Senate 91 9 89 11 D 32 68 99 10 74
1996 68 Senate 95 5 90 10 D 44 54 99 15 85
1997 69 Senate 84 16 83 17 D 67 33 100 20 63
1998 70 Senate 100 0 83 17 D 49 51 99 0 72
1999 71 Senate 92 8 91 7 D 36 64 97 5 84
2000 72 Senate 93 7 90 7 D 48 52 93 5 96
Lifetime conservative rating:   69%


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.