RightDataUSA


Spark Matsunaga

[Congressional biography]

Born: October 8, 1916 in Kukuiula, HI
Died: April 15, 1990 in Toronto, Ontario

Education:

  • University of Hawaii, 1941
  • Harvard Law School, 1951

Military Service:

  • U.S. Army Reserve, 1941
  • U.S. Army, 1941-1945

Career:

  • Lawyer
  • Honolulu prosecutor, 1952-1954
  • Author/poet

Elected Office:

  • HI Territorial Legislature, 1954-1959


Election Results for Spark Matsunaga


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

YearAgeStatePartyOfficeDistrictStagePosVotes%
1962 45 HI D U.S. House District AL Primary 1 48,762 32.4%
1962 45 HI D U.S. House At-Large District General 2 123,599 63.5%
1964 47 HI D U.S. House District AL Primary 1 79,180 38.3%
1964 47 HI D U.S. House At-Large District General 1 140,224 61.1%
1966 49 HI R U.S. House District AL Primary 2 101,572 43.5%
1966 49 HI D U.S. House At-Large District General 2 140,110 67.3%
1968 51 HI D U.S. House At-Large District General 1 161,954 66.6%
1970 53 HI D U.S. House District 01 General 1 85,411 72.9%
1972 55 HI D U.S. House District 01 General 1 73,826 54.7%
1974 57 HI D U.S. House District 01 General 1 71,552 59.3%
1976 59 HI D U.S. Senate Class 1 Primary 1 105,731 51.0%
1976 59 HI D U.S. Senate Class 1 General 1 162,305 53.7%
1982 65 HI D U.S. Senate Class 1 General 1 245,386 80.1%
1988 71 HI D U.S. Senate Class 1 Primary 1 180,853 86.9%
1988 71 HI D U.S. Senate Class 1 General 1 247,941 76.6%


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



Ideology Data for Spark Matsunaga


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
1963 46 House 0 93 96 0 D 87 3 91 100 0
1964 47 House 8 83 66 3 D 77 6 70 92 0
1965 48 House 2 96 90 1 D 89 4 94 89 6
1966 49 House 0 68 70 0 D 65 5 71 100 0
1967 50 House 4 87 92 1 D 84 6 90 93 7
1968 51 House 4 78 87 0 D 76 5 86 100 0
1969 52 House 11 82 93 4 R 60 36 96 79 29
1970 53 House 11 82 74 13 R 62 32 90 89 12
1971 54 House 16 79 88 7 R 39 58 95 72 16
1972 55 House 20 66 70 16 R 46 30 85 80 0
1973 56 House 20 79 92 7 R 33 63 98 84 17
1974 57 House 21 71 86 9 R 42 53 94 87* 5
1975 58 House 16 72 78 7 R 38 57 85 83 9
1976 59 House 15 54 62 6 R 20 55 62 88 0
1977 60 Senate 25 71 83 13 D 83 16 95 79 3
1978 61 Senate 13 80 88 7 D 82 14 92 70 0
1979 62 Senate 25 62 81 6 D 73 8 87 59 10
1980 63 Senate 11 82 83 7 D 69 20 92 88 0
1981 64 Senate 17 78 86 12 R 47 49 91 89 0
1982 65 Senate 14 82 80 12 R 28 66 90 89 0
1983 66 Senate 27 70 82 14 R 46 53 95 95 4
1984 67 Senate 17 79 87 7 R 32 60 93 89 5
1985 68 Senate 32 62 84 12 R 22 77 97 95 5
1986 69 Senate 28 66 77 19 R 25 71 95 89 14
1987 70 Senate 25 75 94 4 R 33 62 97 95 0
1988 71 Senate 14 62 83 2 R 40 49 87 95 0
1989 72 Senate 18 53 62 11 R 50 35 73 94 0
1990 73 Senate 4 1 R 4 6 5 0 0
Lifetime conservative rating:   5%


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.