RightDataUSA


Leon Panetta

[Congressional biography]

Born: June 28, 1938 in Monterey, CA

Education:

  • University of Santa Clara, B.A., 1960, J.D., 1963

Military Service:

  • U.S. Army, 1963-1965

Career:

  • Lawyer
  • Assistant to CA Sen. Thomas Kuchel, 1966-1969
  • Dept. of Health, Education and Welfare Civil Rights division, 1969-1970
  • Executive assistant to NYC Mayor John Lindsay, 1970-1971
  • Director of Office of Management and Budget, 1993-1994
  • White House Chief of Staff, 1994-1996


Election Results for Leon Panetta


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

YearAgeStatePartyOfficeDistrictStagePosVotes%
1976 38 CA D U.S. House District 16 Primary 1 34,556 52.2%
1976 38 CA D U.S. House District 16 General 1 104,545 53.4%
1978 40 CA D U.S. House District 16 Primary 1 74,450 100.0%
1978 40 CA D U.S. House District 16 General 1 104,550 61.4%
1980 42 CA D U.S. House District 16 Primary 1 76,989 100.0%
1980 42 CA D U.S. House District 16 General 1 158,360 71.0%
1982 44 CA D U.S. House District 16 Primary 1 61,549 100.0%
1982 44 CA D U.S. House District 16 General 1 142,630 83.5%
1984 46 CA D U.S. House District 16 Primary 1 67,996 100.0%
1984 46 CA D U.S. House District 16 General 1 153,377 70.8%
1986 48 CA D U.S. House District 16 Primary 1 53,565 94.0%
1986 48 CA D U.S. House District 16 General 1 128,151 78.4%
1988 50 CA D U.S. House District 16 Primary 1 76,452 95.0%
1988 50 CA D U.S. House District 16 General 1 177,452 78.6%
1990 52 CA D U.S. House District 16 Primary 1 65,159 93.1%
1990 52 CA D U.S. House District 16 General 1 134,236 74.2%
1992 54 CA D U.S. House District 17 Primary 1 52,580 85.9%
1992 54 CA D U.S. House District 17 General 1 151,565 72.0%


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



Ideology Data for Leon Panetta


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
1977 39 House 36 60 68 26 D 68 29 95 75 21
1978 40 House 31 64 69 28 D 68 28 96 50 22
1979 41 House 41 59 71 28 D 70 28 97 84 24
1980 42 House 33 66 80 18 D 74 25 97 67 24
1981 43 House 45 55 78 22 R 50 50 99 90 25
1982 44 House 36 63 86 14 R 42 55 98 75 9
1983 45 House 21 78 85 10 R 20 79 94 90 9
1984 46 House 25 75 86 14 R 31 66 99 75 9
1985 47 House 25 71 88 8 R 20 79 96 75 16
1986 48 House 30 66 87 9 R 20 77 95 89 10
1987 49 House 21 79 91 4 R 16 81 95 96 0
1988 50 House 18 76 90 6 R 22 75 97 95 4
1989 51 House 15 85 91 7 R 31 67 98 95 7
1990 52 House 17 80 89 7 R 20 78 97 83 8
1991 53 House 24 73 87 12 R 35 64 99 80 5
1992 54 House 27 71 88 10 R 23 76 98 90 4
1993 55 House 100 0 D 0 0 100 100 0
Lifetime conservative rating:   12%


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.