RightDataUSA


Ernest Istook

[Congressional biography]

Born: February 11, 1950 in Fort Worth, TX

Education:

  • Baylor University, B.A., 1971
  • Oklahoma City University, J.D., 1976

Career:

  • Reporter, 1972-1976
  • Lawyer
  • OK Alcohol Beverage Control Board, 1977-1978
  • Counsel to OK Governor David Boren, 1978

Elected Office:

  • Warr Acres city council, 1982-1986
  • OK House, 1987-1993


Election Results for Ernest Istook


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

YearAgeStatePartyOfficeDistrictStagePosVotes%
1992 42 OK R U.S. House District 05 Primary 2 17,975 32.1%
1992 42 OK R U.S. House District 05 Primary Runoff 1 26,659 56.3%
1992 42 OK R U.S. House District 05 General 1 123,237 53.4%
1994 44 OK R U.S. House District 05 General 1 136,877 78.1%
1996 46 OK R U.S. House District 05 General 1 148,362 69.7%
1998 48 OK R U.S. House District 05 General 1 103,217 68.2%
2000 50 OK R U.S. House District 05 Primary 1 39,976 84.8%
2000 50 OK R U.S. House District 05 General 1 134,159 68.4%
2002 52 OK R U.S. House District 05 General 1 121,374 62.2%
2004 54 OK R U.S. House District 05 General 1 180,430 66.1%
2006 56 OK R Governor Primary 1 99,650 54.7%
2006 56 OK R Governor General 2 310,327 33.5%


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



Ideology Data for Ernest Istook


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
1993 43 House 75 18 90 6 D 30 69 96 10 100
1994 44 House 81 8 92 4 D 36 59 95 5 95
1995 45 House 91 4 92 3 D 16 82 95 0 96
1996 46 House 98 2 95 4 D 32 67 97 10 100
1997 47 House 95 4 93 3 D 17 77 95 5 100
1998 48 House 95 5 89 4 D 16 77 93 0 95
1999 49 House 95 3 D 22 76 97 0 92
2000 50 House 87 7 D 26 68 95 5 91
2001 51 House 92 4 R 93 5 93 0 100
2002 52 House 92 6 R 86 14 94 5 92
2003 53 House 93 3 R 85 9 94 11 88
2004 54 House 88 4 R 85 9 88 0 92
2005 55 House 88 2 R 83 13 88 0 96
2006 56 House 81 1 R 84 5 78 6 96
Lifetime conservative rating:   95%


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.