RightDataUSA


Thomas Kuchel

[Congressional biography]

Born: August 15, 1910 in Anaheim, CA
Died: November 21, 1994 in Beverly Hills, CA

Education:

  • University of Southern California, 1932, Law School, 1935

Military Service:

  • U.S. Naval Reserve (active duty during World War II)

Career:

  • Lawyer

Elected Office:

  • CA Assembly, 1936-1939
  • CA Senate, 1940-1945
  • CA Controller, 1946-1953
  • Appointed to the U.S. Senate on January 2, 1953 to fill the vacancy caused by the resignation of Richard Nixon


Election Results for Thomas Kuchel


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

YearAgeStatePartyOfficeDistrictStagePosVotes%
1954 43 CA D U.S. Senate Class 3 Special Primary 2 455,530 28.8%
1954 43 CA R U.S. Senate Class 3 Special Primary 1 1,118,312 88.6%
1954 43 CA R U.S. Senate Class 3 Special 1 2,090,836 53.2%
1956 45 CA D U.S. Senate Class 3 Primary 2 494,066 26.2%
1956 45 CA R U.S. Senate Class 3 Primary 1 1,332,074 90.4%
1956 45 CA R U.S. Senate Class 3 General 1 2,892,918 54.0%
1962 51 CA R U.S. Senate Class 3 Primary 1 1,357,975 75.0%
1962 51 CA D U.S. Senate Class 3 Primary 4 10,927 0.5%
1962 51 CA R U.S. Senate Class 3 General 1 3,180,483 56.3%
1968 57 CA R U.S. Senate Class 3 Primary 2 1,043,315 46.9%


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



Ideology Data for Thomas Kuchel


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
1953 42 Senate 92 6 R 91 93 21
1954 43 Senate 84 8 R 79 13 85 31
1955 44 Senate 85 15 R 81 13 94 20
1956 45 Senate 61 30 R 86 11 95 64
1957 46 Senate 82 18 R 84 16 100 67
1958 47 Senate 62 36 R 84 14 98 42
1959 48 Senate 57 30 73 19 R 74 16 94 33
1960 49 Senate 43 54 59 38 R 76 22 97 58
1961 50 Senate 57 42 66 31 D 49 48 97 60 43
1962 51 Senate 41 44 33 29 D 50 24 70 45 43
1963 52 Senate 51 44 53 35 D 75 17 90 65 25
1964 53 Senate 29 67 40 50 D 67 26 93 79 27
1965 54 Senate 59 39 50 43 D 68 20 90 41 21
1966 55 Senate 41 43 42 35 D 49 28 78 50 50
1967 56 Senate 36 48 45 27 D 61 16 78 38 47
1968 57 Senate 30 24 23 27 D 51 11 58 46 38
Lifetime conservative rating:   38%


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.