RightDataUSA


Steve Gunderson

[Congressional biography]

Born: May 10, 1951 in Eau Claire, WI

Education:

  • University of Wisconsin, B.A., 1973
  • Brown School of Broadcasting, 1974

Career:

  • Assistant to Rep. Toby Roth, 1979-1980

Elected Office:

  • WI House, 1975-1979


Election Results for Steve Gunderson


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

YearAgeStatePartyOfficeDistrictStagePosVotes%
1980 29 WI R U.S. House District 03 Primary 1 35,710 69.0%
1980 29 WI R U.S. House District 03 General 1 132,001 51.0%
1982 31 WI R U.S. House District 03 Primary 1 36,517 100.0%
1982 31 WI R U.S. House District 03 General 1 99,304 56.6%
1984 33 WI R U.S. House District 03 Primary 1 28,422 100.0%
1984 33 WI R U.S. House District 03 General 1 160,437 68.4%
1986 35 WI R U.S. House District 03 General 1 104,393 64.1%
1988 37 WI R U.S. House District 03 Primary 1 35,768 100.0%
1988 37 WI R U.S. House District 03 General 1 157,513 68.3%
1990 39 WI R U.S. House District 03 Primary 1 18,984 100.0%
1990 39 WI R U.S. House District 03 General 1 94,509 61.0%
1992 41 WI R U.S. House District 03 Primary 1 19,527 100.0%
1992 41 WI R U.S. House District 03 General 1 146,903 56.4%
1994 43 WI R U.S. House District 03 Primary 1 21,307 63.3%
1994 43 WI R U.S. House District 03 General 1 89,338 55.7%


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



Ideology Data for Steve Gunderson


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 30 House 75 25 75 25 R 70 30 99 30 100
1982 31 House 68 32 74 26 R 56 44 99 45 50
1983 32 House 65 35 70 30 R 61 39 99 20 59
1984 33 House 75 25 74 26 R 61 39 99 20 52
1985 34 House 73 25 74 22 R 50 50 97 35 37
1986 35 House 78 20 66 29 R 52 44 96 40 41
1987 36 House 84 12 68 29 R 61 38 97 20 65
1988 37 House 84 13 58 40 R 46 52 98 47 54
1989 38 House 85 15 66 32 R 77 23 99 20 81
1990 39 House 80 19 67 31 R 60 40 98 33 63
1991 40 House 92 8 68 31 R 68 31 98 20 80
1992 41 House 77 23 67 32 R 62 37 99 40 63
1993 42 House 70 30 69 31 D 51 49 99 30 83
1994 43 House 86 14 84 14 D 53 47 98 11 81
1995 44 House 88 9 84 12 D 26 68 95 15 67
1996 45 House 69 29 77 19 D 48 49 94 10 80
Lifetime conservative rating:   65%


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.