RightDataUSA


Bob Mathias

[Congressional biography]

Born: November 17, 1930 in Tulare, CA
Died: September 2, 2006 in Fresno, CA

Education:

  • Stanford University, B.A., 1953

Military Service:

  • U.S. Marine Corps, 1954-1956
  • U.S. Marine Corps Reserve, 1956-1965

Career:

  • U.S. Olympic decathlete, 1952, 1956
  • Deputy director of Selective Service, 1975
  • Worked for President Ford's campaign committee, 1975
  • Director of U.S. Olympic Training Center, 1977-1983


Election Results for Bob Mathias


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

YearAgeStatePartyOfficeDistrictStagePosVotes%
1966 35 CA R U.S. House District 18 Primary 1 46,400 100.0%
1966 35 CA R U.S. House District 18 General 1 96,699 55.9%
1968 37 CA R U.S. House District 18 General 1 100,115 65.2%
1970 39 CA R U.S. House District 18 Primary 1 42,246 100.0%
1970 39 CA R U.S. House District 18 General 1 86,071 63.2%
1972 41 CA R U.S. House District 18 Primary 1 44,900 100.0%
1972 41 CA R U.S. House District 18 General 1 110,153 66.4%
1974 43 CA R U.S. House District 17 Primary 1 30,402 82.1%
1974 43 CA R U.S. House District 17 General 2 61,812 48.1%


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



Ideology Data for Bob Mathias


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
1967 36 House 63 17 63 20 D 50 39 90 8 73
1968 37 House 47 22 44 26 D 54 25 75 0 67
1969 38 House 47 22 44 31 R 51 19 76 0 50
1970 39 House 55 14 49 28 R 68 14 73 24 67
1971 40 House 73 4 65 12 R 67 11 70 10 88
1972 41 House 74 10 65 19 R 76 11 81 0 70
1973 42 House 62 23 56 32 R 58 34 89 24 52
1974 43 House 61 18 41 29 R 62 28 72 15 61
Lifetime conservative rating:   65%


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.