RightDataUSA


Ken Hechler

[Congressional biography]

Born: September 20, 1914 near Roslyn, NY
Died: December 10, 2016 in Romney, WV

Education:

  • Swarthmore College, A.B., 1935
  • Columbia University, M.A., 1936, Ph.D., 1940

Military Service:

  • U.S. Army, 1942-1946 (European Theater of Operations as combat historian)

Career:

  • Professor/researcher
  • Special assistant to President Truman, 1949-1953
  • Worked on Adlai Stevenson's 1956 presidential campaign
  • Aide to CO Sen. John Carroll, 1957
  • Consusltant to House Science and Technology committee, 1980-1982

Elected Office:

  • WV Secretary of State, 1985-2001


Election Results for Ken Hechler


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

YearAgeStatePartyOfficeDistrictStagePosVotes%
1958 43 WV D U.S. House District 04 Primary 1 12,948 41.2%
1958 43 WV D U.S. House District 04 General 1 60,794 51.5%
1960 45 WV D U.S. House District 04 Primary 1 44,678 87.4%
1960 45 WV D U.S. House District 04 General 1 82,931 53.2%
1962 47 WV D U.S. House District 04 Primary 1 37,732 75.2%
1962 47 WV D U.S. House District 04 General 1 83,507 57.8%
1964 49 WV D U.S. House District 04 Primary 1 58,288 100.0%
1964 49 WV D U.S. House District 04 General 1 109,287 61.2%
1966 51 WV D U.S. House District 04 Primary 1 37,853 69.6%
1966 51 WV D U.S. House District 04 General 1 71,751 59.7%
1968 53 WV D U.S. House District 04 Primary 1 44,089 79.2%
1968 53 WV D U.S. House District 04 General 1 94,507 64.2%
1970 55 WV D U.S. House District 04 Primary 1 32,033 80.5%
1970 55 WV D U.S. House District 04 General 1 62,531 67.4%
1972 57 WV D U.S. House District 04 Primary 1 50,872 52.1%
1972 57 WV D U.S. House District 04 General 1 100,600 61.0%
1974 59 WV D U.S. House District 04 General 1 66,420 100.0%
1976 61 WV D Governor Primary 3 52,791 12.7%
1976 61 WV I (write-in) U.S. House District 04 General 2 59,067 36.6%
1978 63 WV D U.S. House District 04 Primary 2 32,746 43.9%
1984 69 WV D Secretary of State District SOS Primary 1 188,526 54.4%
1984 69 WV D Secretary of State District SOS General 1 434,488 63.7%
1988 73 WV D Secretary of State District SOS Primary 1 279,789 100.0%
1988 73 WV D Secretary of State District SOS General 1 441,688 100.0%
1990 75 WV D U.S. House District 04 Primary 2 28,618 43.2%
1992 77 WV D Secretary of State District SOS Primary 1 197,244 68.9%
1992 77 WV D Secretary of State District SOS General 1 417,893 69.6%
1996 81 WV D Secretary of State District SOS Primary 1 268,393 100.0%
1996 81 WV D Secretary of State District SOS General 1 396,794 69.4%
2000 85 WV D U.S. House District 02 Primary 3 21,451 24.5%
2004 89 WV D Secretary of State District SOS Primary 1 67,065 25.7%
2004 89 WV D Secretary of State District SOS General 2 347,780 48.1%
2010 95 WV D U.S. Senate Class 1 Special Primary 2 16,267 17.3%


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



Ideology Data for Ken Hechler


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
1959 44 House 36 45 77 23 R 54 43 95 88
1960 45 House 5 95 80 20 R 44 56 100 89
1961 46 House 9 91 90 10 D 92 8 100 100 13
1962 47 House 12 88 95 5 D 98 2 100 88 13
1963 48 House 13 87 91 9 D 97 3 100 92 13
1964 49 House 25 75 85 15 D 88 12 100 100 19
1965 50 House 12 88 90 10 D 91 9 100 84 18
1966 51 House 19 81 90 10 D 93 7 100 71 26
1967 52 House 24 76 88 12 D 94 6 100 73 14
1968 53 House 6 94 89 11 D 84 16 100 83 13
1969 54 House 16 84 78 22 R 51 49 100 80 20
1970 55 House 11 89 75 25 R 58 42 100 89 0
1971 56 House 8 91 81 18 R 32 68 100 95 10
1972 57 House 9 91 90 10 R 38 62 100 100 10
1973 58 House 20 80 75 25 R 30 70 99 88 12
1974 59 House 18 82 77 23 R 42 58 100 87 14
1975 60 House 25 75 69 31 R 34 66 100 74 31
1976 61 House 27 68 71 26 R 22 76 94 85 14
Lifetime conservative rating:   16%


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.