RightDataUSA


Torbert MacDonald

[Congressional biography]

Born: June 6, 1917 in Everett, MA
Died: May 21, 1976 in Bethesda, MD

Education:

  • Harvard University, B.A., 1940, LL.B., 1946

Military Service:

  • U.S. Navy, 1942-1944 (PT boat commander)
  • Awarded the Silver Star Combat Award and Presidential Citation

Career:

  • Lawyer
  • National Labor Relations Board, 1948-1952


Election Results for Torbert MacDonald


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

YearAgeStatePartyOfficeDistrictStagePosVotes%
1952 35 MA D U.S. House District 08 Primary 2 12,746 48.8%
1954 37 MA D U.S. House District 08 Primary 1 13,659 52.1%
1954 37 MA D U.S. House District 08 General 1 74,568 53.2%
1956 39 MA D U.S. House District 08 Primary 1 32,820 100.0%
1956 39 MA D U.S. House District 08 General 1 92,463 54.8%
1958 41 MA D U.S. House District 08 Primary 1 30,089 100.0%
1958 41 MA D U.S. House District 08 General 1 91,263 66.4%
1960 43 MA D U.S. House District 08 Primary 1 37,246 99.2%
1960 43 MA D U.S. House District 08 General 1 114,333 65.8%
1962 45 MA D U.S. House District 07 Primary 1 69,023 100.0%
1962 45 MA D U.S. House District 07 General 1 119,117 71.6%
1964 47 MA D U.S. House District 07 Primary 1 64,505 100.0%
1964 47 MA D U.S. House District 07 General 1 139,095 76.9%
1966 49 MA D U.S. House District 07 Primary 1 59,504 100.0%
1966 49 MA D U.S. House District 07 General 1 119,543 74.5%
1968 51 MA D U.S. House District 07 Primary 1 45,537 77.9%
1968 51 MA D U.S. House District 07 General 1 119,562 62.5%
1970 53 MA D U.S. House District 07 Primary 1 53,310 100.0%
1970 53 MA D U.S. House District 07 General 1 115,597 68.8%
1972 55 MA D U.S. House District 07 Primary 1 38,648 82.5%
1972 55 MA D U.S. House District 07 General 1 135,193 67.7%
1974 57 MA D U.S. House District 07 Primary 1 63,063 100.0%
1974 57 MA D U.S. House District 07 General 1 122,165 79.8%


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



Ideology Data for Torbert MacDonald


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
1955 38 House 65 23 R 56 37 89 56
1956 39 House 69 25 R 59 29 90 86
1957 40 House 59 29 R 48 40 87 89
1958 41 House 49 32 R 52 22 78 83
1959 42 House 0 82 65 27 R 44 37 82 88
1960 43 House 16 63 61 20 R 42 47 82 100
1961 44 House 17 65 69 12 D 74 8 79 90 0
1962 45 House 6 69 72 4 D 63 3 65 100 8
1963 46 House 0 73 74 0 D 69 0 66 92 7
1964 47 House 8 92 77 5 D 83 6 83 100 13
1965 48 House 10 67 60 18 D 67 13 78 79 25
1966 49 House 3 78 73 4 D 68 11 69 87 10
1967 50 House 6 57 64 8 D 64 9 66 83 0
1968 51 House 10 65 59 10 D 54 16 65 92 14
1969 52 House 2 80 82 5 R 43 53 84 93 14
1970 53 House 14 73 68 10 R 52 37 83 82 6
1971 54 House 26 60 64 21 R 35 53 79 77 0
1972 55 House 10 52 56 17 R 41 41 66 100 0
1973 56 House 20 71 71 17 R 23 66 85 82 14
1974 57 House 22 49 58 13 R 36 36 69 71 15
1975 58 House 14 65 74 9 R 26 54 79 88 14
1976 59 House 2 32 31 1 R 0 52 24 75 0
Lifetime conservative rating:   10%


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.