RightDataUSA


Buddy MacKay

[Congressional biography]

Born: March 22, 1933 in Ocala, FL

Education:

  • University of Florida, B.S., B.A., 1954, LL.B., 1961

Military Service:

  • U.S. Air Force, 1955-1958

Career:

  • Lawyer

Elected Office:

  • FL House, 1968-1974
  • FL Governor (following the death of Lawton Chiles) from December 13, 1998 through January 5, 1999



Election Results for Buddy MacKay


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

YearAgeStatePartyOfficeDistrictStagePosVotes%
1980 47 FL D U.S. Senate Class 3 Primary 3 272,538 24.6%
1982 49 FL D U.S. House District 06 General 1 85,825 61.3%
1984 51 FL D U.S. House District 06 General 1 167,409 99.3%
1986 53 FL D U.S. House District 06 Primary 1 63,027 85.5%
1986 53 FL D U.S. House District 06 General 1 143,598 70.2%
1988 55 FL D U.S. Senate Class 1 Primary 2 263,946 26.1%
1988 55 FL D U.S. Senate Class 1 Primary Runoff 1 369,266 52.0%
1988 55 FL D U.S. Senate Class 1 General 2 2,016,553 49.6%
1990 57 FL D Lt. Governor Primary 1 0 0.0%
1990 57 FL D Lt. Governor General 1 0 0.0%
1994 61 FL D Lt. Governor Primary 1 0 0.0%
1994 61 FL D Lt. Governor General 1 0 0.0%
1998 65 FL D Governor General 2 1,773,054 44.7%


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




Ideology Data for Buddy MacKay


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
1983 50 House 56 37 62 28 R 44 50 90 63 32
1984 51 House 47 46 63 26 R 38 56 89 65 36
1985 52 House 40 58 76 17 R 40 56 94 50 42
1986 53 House 60 38 72 19 R 29 70 91 58 36
1987 54 House 51 47 75 16 R 26 67 91 71 4
1988 55 House 24 21 34 5 R 13 34 31 80 11
Lifetime conservative rating:   27%


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.