RightDataUSA


Abner Mikva

[Congressional biography]

Born: January 21, 1926 in Milwaukee, WI
Died: July 4, 2016 in Chicago, IL

Education:

  • University of Chicago, J.D., 1951

Military Service:

  • U.S. Army Air Corps, 1944-1945

Career:

  • Editor of University of Chicago Law Review, 1950-1951
  • Lawyer
  • Law clerk to Supreme Court justice Sherman Minton, 1951-1952
  • Professor at Northwestern University, 1973-1975
  • U.S. Appeals court judge, 1979-1994
  • Counsel to President Clinton, 1994-1995

Elected Office:

  • IL House, 1956-1966



Election Results for Abner Mikva


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

YearAgeStatePartyOfficeDistrictStagePosVotes%
1966 40 IL D U.S. House District 02 Primary 2 31,100 47.6%
1968 42 IL D U.S. House District 02 Primary 1 29,088 60.6%
1968 42 IL D U.S. House District 02 General 1 106,642 65.4%
1970 44 IL D U.S. House District 02 General 1 88,252 74.7%
1972 46 IL D U.S. House District 10 Primary 1 46,894 66.4%
1972 46 IL D U.S. House District 10 General 2 113,222 48.4%
1974 48 IL D U.S. House District 10 General 1 83,457 50.9%
1976 50 IL D U.S. House District 10 General 1 106,804 50.0%
1978 52 IL D U.S. House District 10 General 1 89,479 50.2%


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




Ideology Data for Abner Mikva


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 43 House 7 89 84 9 R 40 45 88 100 13
1970 44 House 5 84 78 11 R 45 42 88 88 24
1971 45 House 1 86 80 5 R 23 66 85 100 17
1972 46 House 13 72 66 16 R 38 35 75 100 0
1975 49 House 6 85 86 7 R 36 56 92 100 3
1976 50 House 9 82 84 6 R 18 75 89 95 6
1977 51 House 5 84 80 9 D 72 16 89 100 3
1978 52 House 7 73 70 9 D 61 10 81 95 4
1979 53 House 6 73 76 4 D 77 9 78 100 0
Lifetime conservative rating:   7%


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.