RightDataUSA


Claiborne Pell

[Congressional biography]

Born: November 22, 1918 in New York City, NY
Died: January 1, 2009 in Newport, RI

Education:

  • Princeton University, B.A., 1940
  • Columbia University, M.A., 1946

Military Service:

  • U.S. Coast Guard, 1941-1945
  • U.S. Coast Guard Reserve

Career:

  • U.S. State Department, 1945-1952
  • Businessman
  • Consultant to DNC, 1953-1960


Election Results for Claiborne Pell


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

YearAgeStatePartyOfficeDistrictStagePosVotes%
1960 41 RI D U.S. Senate Class 2 Primary 1 83,184 61.3%
1960 41 RI D U.S. Senate Class 2 General 1 275,575 68.9%
1966 47 RI D U.S. Senate Class 2 General 1 219,331 67.7%
1972 53 RI D U.S. Senate Class 2 General 1 221,942 53.7%
1978 59 RI D U.S. Senate Class 2 Primary 1 69,729 87.0%
1978 59 RI D U.S. Senate Class 2 General 1 229,557 75.1%
1984 65 RI D U.S. Senate Class 2 General 1 286,780 72.6%
1990 71 RI D U.S. Senate Class 2 General 1 225,105 61.8%


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



Ideology Data for Claiborne Pell


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
1961 42 Senate 6 94 85 11 D 77 16 95 100 14
1962 43 Senate 21 76 84 8 D 79 10 90 83 6
1963 44 Senate 9 90 84 9 D 80 13 92 94 13
1964 45 Senate 6 78 73 18 D 69 16 93 95 13
1965 46 Senate 8 85 83 6 D 73 12 87 94 0
1966 47 Senate 3 94 86 3 D 75 15 89 95 4
1967 48 Senate 9 77 78 10 D 69 20 87 100 7
1968 49 Senate 10 77 63 18 D 65 21 84 85 13
1969 50 Senate 12 81 76 17 R 51 42 93 94 13
1970 51 Senate 9 64 65 10 R 44 34 77 89 12
1971 52 Senate 17 76 78 15 R 34 48 90 92 0
1972 53 Senate 5 60 68 5 R 26 48 63 89 0
1973 54 Senate 11 83 85 8 R 41 56 94 80 20
1974 55 Senate 6 91 87 10 R 31 64 95 86* 0
1975 56 Senate 7 84 86 6 R 41 52 92 94 6
1976 57 Senate 19 70 79 12 R 34 51 89 95 3
1977 58 Senate 13 84 80 13 D 77 17 92 84 11
1978 59 Senate 9 83 84 9 D 85 7 90 79 8
1979 60 Senate 16 66 77 12 D 77 12 89 79 9
1980 61 Senate 19 65 73 10 D 69 16 87 88 5
1981 62 Senate 10 82 82 14 R 42 52 96 95 13
1982 63 Senate 17 78 75 19 R 36 59 94 95 0
1983 64 Senate 14 82 81 15 R 41 48 95 90 0
1984 65 Senate 15 81 82 14 R 31 66 93 100 5
1985 66 Senate 7 92 82 14 R 29 67 97 95 10
1986 67 Senate 16 80 75 20 R 30 67 96 85 19
1987 68 Senate 19 81 92 7 R 32 67 97 90 0
1988 69 Senate 8 92 89 6 R 43 51 95 100 0
1989 70 Senate 18 76 85 11 R 49 48 96 85 12
1990 71 Senate 11 81 86 9 R 25 72 96 94 18
1991 72 Senate 20 78 89 10 R 32 68 99 95 0
1992 73 Senate 11 82 83 9 R 28 68 93 89 8
1993 74 Senate 12 85 97 3 D 93 4 99 85 0
1994 75 Senate 28 72 92 8 D 94 2 98 95 0
1995 76 Senate 9 89 88 9 D 84 13 97 95 5
1996 77 Senate 16 79 88 8 D 83 14 98 100 5
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.