RightDataUSA


Richard Ottinger

[Congressional biography]

Born: January 27, 1929 in New York City, NY

Education:

  • Cornell University, B.A., 1950
  • Harvard University, LL.B., 1953

Military Service:

  • U.S. Air Force, 1955-1957

Career:

  • Lawyer
  • Director of League of Conservation Voters
  • Founder/staff member of Peace Corps, 1961-1964


Election Results for Richard Ottinger


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

YearAgeStatePartyOfficeDistrictStagePosVotes%
1964 35 NY D U.S. House District 25 General 1 122,260 56.2%
1966 37 NY D U.S. House District 25 General 1 106,952 54.6%
1968 39 NY D U.S. House District 25 General 1 125,415 58.6%
1970 41 NY D U.S. Senate Class 1 Primary 1 366,789 39.6%
1970 41 NY D U.S. Senate Class 1 General 2 2,171,232 36.8%
1972 43 NY D U.S. House District 23 General 2 98,335 49.6%
1974 45 NY D U.S. House District 24 General 1 82,542 57.8%
1976 47 NY D U.S. House District 24 General 1 99,761 54.5%
1978 49 NY D U.S. House District 24 General 1 75,397 56.1%
1980 51 NY D U.S. House District 24 General 1 100,182 59.4%
1982 53 NY D U.S. House District 20 General 1 98,425 56.5%


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



Ideology Data for Richard Ottinger


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
1965 36 House 2 98 83 12 D 88 10 96 100 0
1966 37 House 8 86 74 23 D 75 17 93 88 31
1967 38 House 7 91 74 22 D 79 17 90 87 7
1968 39 House 12 82 68 20 D 74 21 91 92 26
1969 40 House 2 93 84 9 R 45 53 94 100 14
1970 41 House 0 41 40 7 R 12 26 30 100 0
1975 46 House 7 91 90 8 R 31 65 96 95 0
1976 47 House 9 87 89 9 R 20 78 98 95 3
1977 48 House 4 96 90 9 D 77 20 99 100 5
1978 49 House 4 93 84 12 D 79 18 94 85 4
1979 50 House 2 94 92 5 D 75 19 94 100 0
1980 51 House 6 93 90 7 D 69 26 90 100 11
1981 52 House 3 92 89 7 R 24 74 82 100 0
1982 53 House 7 92 89 9 R 23 73 84 95 10
1983 54 House 7 91 92 4 R 18 80 88 95 0
1984 55 House 7 88 83 7 R 21 67 84 100 11
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.