RightDataUSA


John Melcher

[Congressional biography]

Born: September 6, 1924 in Sioux City, IA
Died: April 12, 2018 in Missoula, MT

Education:

  • Iowa State University, 1950

Military Service:

  • U.S. Army, 1943-1945

Career:

  • Veterinarian

Elected Office:

  • Mayor of Forsyth (MT), 1955-1960
  • MT House, 1961-1962, 1969
  • MT Senate, 1962-1965


Election Results for John Melcher


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

YearAgeStatePartyOfficeDistrictStagePosVotes%
1966 41 MT D U.S. House District 02 Primary 1 27,031 100.0%
1966 41 MT D U.S. House District 02 General 2 50,308 39.8%
1969 44 MT D U.S. House District 02 Special 1 45,473 50.8%
1970 45 MT D U.S. House District 02 Primary 1 34,728 100.0%
1970 45 MT D U.S. House District 02 General 1 78,082 64.1%
1972 47 MT D U.S. House District 02 Primary 1 51,900 100.0%
1972 47 MT D U.S. House District 02 General 1 114,524 76.1%
1974 49 MT D U.S. House District 02 Primary 1 39,689 100.0%
1974 49 MT D U.S. House District 02 General 1 74,680 63.0%
1976 51 MT D U.S. Senate Class 1 Primary 1 89,413 88.5%
1976 51 MT D U.S. Senate Class 1 General 1 206,232 64.2%
1982 57 MT D U.S. Senate Class 1 Primary 1 83,539 68.3%
1982 57 MT D U.S. Senate Class 1 General 1 174,861 54.5%
1988 63 MT D U.S. Senate Class 1 Primary 1 88,457 74.5%
1988 63 MT D U.S. Senate Class 1 General 2 175,809 48.1%
1994 69 MT D U.S. Senate Class 1 Primary 2 39,607 32.0%


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



Ideology Data for John Melcher


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
1969 44 House 22 75 91 7 R 56 41 95 78 46
1970 45 House 20 68 74 15 R 62 31 83 71 12
1971 46 House 18 75 78 12 R 37 54 85 83 30
1972 47 House 20 60 67 12 R 51 27 81 57 17
1973 48 House 26 64 76 12 R 29 58 85 76 13
1974 49 House 26 72 81 14 R 47 51 93 65* 33
1975 50 House 35 57 77 17 R 31 61 92 74* 19
1976 51 House 39 50 64 24 R 29 65 87 79 23
1977 52 Senate 52 39 54 36 D 72 23 89 65 14
1978 53 Senate 44 53 57 37 D 53 40 93 50 25
1979 54 Senate 41 55 66 28 D 57 35 93 63 24
1980 55 Senate 31 53 59 26 D 45 47 87 56 26
1981 56 Senate 59 34 66 23 R 43 41 88 55 38
1982 57 Senate 59 35 63 23 R 49 43 88 79 47
1983 58 Senate 39 61 82 16 R 33 65 98 80 32
1984 59 Senate 19 77 88 9 R 30 69 97 89 23
1985 60 Senate 33 63 88 9 R 20 74 95 85 10
1986 61 Senate 14 86 86 14 R 20 80 99 90 19
1987 62 Senate 44 56 85 15 R 40 59 98 70 12
1988 63 Senate 43 57 77 23 R 55 45 99 75 16
Lifetime conservative rating:   23%


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.