RightDataUSA


George O'Brien

[Congressional biography]

Born: June 17, 1917 in Chicago, IL
Died: July 17, 1986 in Bethesda, MD

Education:

  • Northwestern University, A.B., 1939
  • Yale University, J.D., 1947

Military Service:

  • U.S. Air Force, 1941-1945

Career:

  • Lawyer

Elected Office:

  • Will County supervisor, 1956-1964
  • IL House, 1970-1971


Election Results for George O'Brien


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

YearAgeStatePartyOfficeDistrictStagePosVotes%
1972 55 IL R U.S. House District 17 General 1 100,175 55.6%
1974 57 IL R U.S. House District 17 General 1 59,984 51.5%
1976 59 IL R U.S. House District 17 General 1 113,145 58.2%
1978 61 IL R U.S. House District 17 General 1 94,375 70.6%
1980 63 IL R U.S. House District 17 General 1 125,806 65.8%
1982 65 IL R U.S. House District 04 Primary 1 19,353 52.8%
1982 65 IL R U.S. House District 04 General 1 79,842 54.6%
1984 67 IL R U.S. House District 04 General 1 121,744 64.0%


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



Ideology Data for George O'Brien


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
1973 56 House 77 14 68 21 R 71 21 88 17 78
1974 57 House 72 25 69 28 R 68 25 95 17* 62
1975 58 House 75 13 69 19 R 69 24 87 12 76
1976 59 House 79 18 75 22 R 69 27 95 15 80
1977 60 House 72 23 D 47 48 94 16 82
1978 61 House 67 22 63 26 D 41 53 88 25 81
1979 62 House 72 15 63 21 D 36 48 85 11 86
1980 63 House 58 17 59 22 D 36 42 80 25 56
1981 64 House 71 21 65 27 R 63 24 87 20 58
1982 65 House 68 14 56 26 R 53 29 80 28 50
1983 66 House 74 18 53 32 R 66 22 85 21 60
1984 67 House 88 8 60 32 R 65 29 93 20 55
1985 68 House 76 11 46 30 R 58 25 77 12 72
1986 69 House 11 0 12 18 R 17 27 26 40 75
Lifetime conservative rating:   72%


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.