RightDataUSA


George Mitchell

[Congressional biography]

Born: August 20, 1933 in Waterville, ME

Education:

  • Bowdoin College, B.A., 1954
  • Georgetown University, LL.B., 1960

Military Service:

  • U.S. Army (Counterintelligence Corps), 1954-1956

Career:

  • Lawyer
  • U.S. Department of Justice, 1960-1962
  • Assistant to Sen. Edmund Muskie, 1962-1965
  • Assistant Cumberland County attorney, 1971
  • U.S. Attorney for ME, 1977-1979
  • U.S. District judge for ME, 1979-1980

Elected Office:

  • Appointed to the U.S. Senate on May 17, 1980 to fill the vacancy caused by the resignation of Edmund Muskie


Election Results for George Mitchell


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

YearAgeStatePartyOfficeDistrictStagePosVotes%
1974 40 ME D Governor Primary 1 33,312 37.5%
1974 40 ME D Governor General 2 132,219 36.3%
1982 48 ME D U.S. Senate Class 1 General 1 279,819 60.9%
1988 54 ME D U.S. Senate Class 1 General 1 452,581 81.3%


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



Ideology Data for George Mitchell


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
1980 46 Senate 21 79 86 14 D 76 24 100 67 15
1981 47 Senate 24 75 88 10 R 45 51 98 90 7
1982 48 Senate 16 84 89 11 R 35 63 98 95 32
1983 49 Senate 30 70 84 15 R 40 60 99 80 12
1984 50 Senate 15 85 84 15 R 36 61 98 89 9
1985 51 Senate 30 70 87 13 R 33 67 99 65 14
1986 52 Senate 25 74 84 14 R 31 66 98 89 10
1987 53 Senate 31 69 90 10 R 36 64 99 95 8
1988 54 Senate 5 95 95 4 R 43 57 99 95 0
1989 55 Senate 37 63 86 14 R 57 43 100 80 12
1990 56 Senate 22 78 89 11 R 34 66 100 83 9
1991 57 Senate 20 80 92 8 R 35 65 100 90 5
1992 58 Senate 21 79 93 7 R 25 75 100 95 0
1993 59 Senate 20 80 98 2 D 94 6 100 85 4
1994 60 Senate 16 84 96 4 D 97 3 100 90 0
Lifetime conservative rating:   8%


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.