RightDataUSA


Bob Kasten

[Congressional biography]

Born: June 19, 1942 in Milwaukee, WI

Education:

  • University of Arizona, B.A., 1964
  • Columbia University, M.B.A., 1966

Military Service:

  • WI Air National Guard, 1966-1972

Career:

  • VP of shoe manufacturing company

Elected Office:

  • WI Senate, 1972-1974


Election Results for Bob Kasten


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

YearAgeStatePartyOfficeDistrictStagePosVotes%
1974 32 WI R U.S. House District 09 Primary 1 22,749 57.2%
1974 32 WI R U.S. House District 09 General 1 77,733 52.9%
1976 34 WI R U.S. House District 09 Primary 1 30,083 100.0%
1976 34 WI R U.S. House District 09 General 1 163,791 65.9%
1978 36 WI R Governor Primary 2 143,361 42.1%
1980 38 WI R U.S. Senate Class 3 Primary 1 134,586 36.8%
1980 38 WI R U.S. Senate Class 3 General 1 1,106,311 50.2%
1986 44 WI R U.S. Senate Class 3 Primary 1 248,333 100.0%
1986 44 WI R U.S. Senate Class 3 General 1 754,573 50.9%
1992 50 WI R U.S. Senate Class 3 Primary 1 197,488 80.5%
1992 50 WI R U.S. Senate Class 3 General 2 1,129,599 46.0%


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



Ideology Data for Bob Kasten


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 33 House 88 10 88 10 R 69 29 98 21 83
1976 34 House 83 15 79 19 R 63 35 96 15 74
1977 35 House 79 15 77 17 D 43 52 95 20 95
1978 36 House 38 12 44 11 D 21 29 53 27 90
1981 39 Senate 88 11 84 15 R 80 20 98 10 80
1982 40 Senate 88 12 83 16 R 77 22 99 5 84
1983 41 Senate 93 7 78 17 R 68 32 96 11 76
1984 42 Senate 87 11 83 13 R 74 21 95 17 95
1985 43 Senate 75 25 68 32 R 74 26 99 15 67
1986 44 Senate 87 13 74 26 R 81 19 100 15 81
1987 45 Senate 91 9 90 9 R 68 31 99 20 92
1988 46 Senate 84 14 78 19 R 74 19 95 10 84
1989 47 Senate 84 16 90 10 R 85 15 99 10 88
1990 48 Senate 81 19 80 20 R 71 29 100 6 91
1991 49 Senate 78 23 82 18 R 84 16 100 10 86
1992 50 Senate 61 32 72 20 R 63 32 91 21 73
Lifetime conservative rating:   84%


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.