RightDataUSA


Jerry Patterson

[Congressional biography]

Born: October 25, 1934 in El Paso, TX

Education:

  • Cal State University-Long Beach, B.A., 1960
  • UCLA, J.D., 1966

Military Service:

  • U.S. Coast Guard, 1953-1957

Career:

  • Lawyer
  • Placentia city attorney, 1973-1975

Elected Office:

  • Santa Ana city council, 1969-1973
  • Mayor of Santa Ana, 1973-1975


Election Results for Jerry Patterson


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

YearAgeStatePartyOfficeDistrictStagePosVotes%
1974 39 CA D U.S. House District 38 Primary 1 22,051 46.5%
1974 39 CA D U.S. House District 38 General 1 68,335 54.0%
1976 41 CA D U.S. House District 38 Primary 1 51,928 100.0%
1976 41 CA D U.S. House District 38 General 1 103,317 63.6%
1978 43 CA D U.S. House District 38 Primary 1 53,627 100.0%
1978 43 CA D U.S. House District 38 General 1 75,471 58.6%
1980 45 CA D U.S. House District 38 Primary 1 47,929 100.0%
1980 45 CA D U.S. House District 38 General 1 91,880 55.5%
1982 47 CA D U.S. House District 38 Primary 1 36,076 100.0%
1982 47 CA D U.S. House District 38 General 1 73,914 52.4%
1984 49 CA R U.S. House District 38 Primary 4 1,431 4.3%
1984 49 CA D U.S. House District 38 Primary 1 35,959 80.4%
1984 49 CA D U.S. House District 38 General 2 72,231 44.6%


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



Ideology Data for Jerry Patterson


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
1975 40 House 15 78 85 9 R 29 65 94 79* 22
1976 41 House 15 76 83 10 R 25 67 92 74 26
1977 42 House 12 76 77 8 D 62 20 83 78 11
1978 43 House 15 81 84 9 D 76 17 91 63 26
1979 44 House 15 65 77 5 D 72 17 81 86 6
1980 45 House 17 72 84 6 D 66 25 89 72 18
1981 46 House 24 71 80 14 R 39 54 93 78 8
1982 47 House 26 67 84 12 R 38 55 92 72 19
1983 48 House 24 74 84 9 R 20 77 91 90 0
1984 49 House 32 59 74 15 R 38 53 88 75 23
Lifetime conservative rating:   16%


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.