RightDataUSA


Edmund Muskie

[Congressional biography]

Born: March 28, 1914 in Rumford, ME
Died: March 26, 1996 in Washington, DC

Education:

  • Bates College, 1936
  • Cornell University Law School, 1939

Military Service:

  • U.S. Navy, 1942-1945

Career:

  • Lawyer
  • Waterville city solicitor, 1954
  • U.S. Secretary of State, 1980-1981

Elected Office:

  • ME House, 1947-1952
  • Candidate for Vice-President, 1968
  • Candidate for President, 1972


Election Results for Edmund Muskie


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

YearAgeStatePartyOfficeDistrictStagePosVotes%
1954 40 ME D Governor Primary 1 17,221 100.0%
1954 40 ME D Governor General 1 135,673 54.5%
1956 42 ME D Governor Primary 1 26,533 100.0%
1956 42 ME D Governor General 1 180,254 59.2%
1958 44 ME D U.S. Senate Class 1 Primary 1 39,202 100.0%
1958 44 ME D U.S. Senate Class 1 General 1 172,704 60.8%
1964 50 ME D U.S. Senate Class 1 General 1 253,511 66.6%
1970 56 ME D U.S. Senate Class 1 General 1 199,954 61.7%
1976 62 ME D U.S. Senate Class 1 General 1 292,704 60.2%


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



Ideology Data for Edmund Muskie


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
1959 45 Senate 10 75 71 15 R 41 44 87 100
1960 46 Senate 15 61 62 20 R 44 35 87 91
1961 47 Senate 8 80 85 6 D 75 15 90 100 7
1962 48 Senate 18 68 90 1 D 83 9 88 75 7
1963 49 Senate 16 74 75 5 D 88 6 88 94 13
1964 50 Senate 2 90 86 4 D 78 6 90 95 15
1965 51 Senate 15 72 77 5 D 71 7 77 93 9
1966 52 Senate 1 74 71 3 D 68 13 76 94 4
1967 53 Senate 9 75 81 4 D 76 9 82 73 14
1968 54 Senate 16 49 52 11 D 60 12 65 79 5
1969 55 Senate 9 81 79 11 R 51 42 89 94 8
1970 56 Senate 4 78 71 5 R 40 44 74 100 5
1971 57 Senate 8 62 63 5 R 21 40 59 100 0
1972 58 Senate 1 58 45 3 R 15 46 48 89 0
1973 59 Senate 7 83 82 8 R 26 54 84 95 9
1974 60 Senate 7 87 84 10 R 35 61 91 100 6
1975 61 Senate 7 84 89 4 R 42 49 93 89* 9
1976 62 Senate 13 80 83 6 R 36 57 91 84 6
1977 63 Senate 13 70 69 12 D 76 9 80 90 12
1978 64 Senate 13 78 84 10 D 80 11 93 75 9
1979 65 Senate 21 64 78 10 D 76 14 89 56 16
1980 66 Senate 13 4 D 11 4 17 100 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.