RightDataUSA


Peter Kostmayer

[Congressional biography]

Born: September 27, 1946 in New York City, NY

Education:

  • West Nottingham Academy (Colora, MD), 1965
  • Columbia University, B.A., 1971

Career:

  • Reporter, 1971-1972
  • Press secretary to PA Attorney General Shane Cramer, 1972-1973
  • Deputy press secretary to PA Gov. Milton Shapp, 1973-1976
  • EPA Administrator, 1994-1995

Elected Office:

  • Candidate for PA Senate, 2002


Election Results for Peter Kostmayer


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

YearAgeStatePartyOfficeDistrictStagePosVotes%
1976 29 PA D U.S. House District 08 Primary 1 12,842 36.4%
1976 29 PA D U.S. House District 08 General 1 93,855 49.5%
1978 31 PA D U.S. House District 08 Primary 1 25,755 85.2%
1978 31 PA D U.S. House District 08 General 1 89,276 61.1%
1980 33 PA D U.S. House District 08 General 2 99,593 48.7%
1982 35 PA D U.S. House District 08 General 1 83,242 50.3%
1984 37 PA D U.S. House District 08 Primary 1 30,177 100.0%
1984 37 PA D U.S. House District 08 General 1 112,648 50.9%
1986 39 PA D U.S. House District 08 Primary 1 26,861 90.6%
1986 39 PA D U.S. House District 08 General 1 85,731 55.0%
1988 41 PA D U.S. House District 08 Primary 1 34,298 89.7%
1988 41 PA D U.S. House District 08 General 1 128,153 56.8%
1990 43 PA D U.S. House District 08 General 1 85,015 56.6%
1992 45 PA D U.S. House District 08 Primary 1 29,442 75.5%
1992 45 PA D U.S. House District 08 General 2 114,095 45.7%


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



Ideology Data for Peter Kostmayer


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
1977 30 House 20 79 73 25 D 77 23 98 85 14
1978 31 House 18 80 69 29 D 74 26 97 74 13
1979 32 House 13 87 76 22 D 77 21 97 95 13
1980 33 House 16 80 81 15 D 77 22 95 94 11
1983 36 House 8 84 86 5 R 16 77 92 90 0
1984 37 House 20 80 83 13 R 35 63 97 85 4
1985 38 House 20 80 90 8 R 29 70 98 90 21
1986 39 House 24 74 87 9 R 17 81 97 90 5
1987 40 House 7 93 92 2 R 13 87 95 96 0
1988 41 House 16 82 89 5 R 21 76 96 85 4
1989 42 House 15 85 94 4 R 26 72 98 90 7
1990 43 House 13 85 89 8 R 20 80 97 89 0
1991 44 House 16 81 89 8 R 26 72 97 89 0
1992 45 House 21 79 90 8 R 15 84 99 95 8
Lifetime conservative rating:   8%


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.