RightDataUSA


Richard Poff

[Congressional biography]

Born: October 19, 1923 in Radford, VA
Died: June 28, 2011 in Tullahoma, TN

Education:

  • University of Virginia, LL.B., 1948

Military Service:

  • World War II
  • Awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross

Career:

  • Lawyer
  • VA Supreme Court justice, 1972-1988


Election Results for Richard Poff


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

YearAgeStatePartyOfficeDistrictStagePosVotes%
1952 28 VA R U.S. House District 06 General 1 34,041 51.5%
1954 30 VA R U.S. House District 06 General 1 32,855 62.3%
1956 32 VA R U.S. House District 06 General 1 51,279 62.1%
1958 34 VA R U.S. House District 06 General 1 37,779 56.7%
1960 36 VA R U.S. House District 06 General 1 60,371 82.4%
1962 38 VA R U.S. House District 06 General 1 44,060 65.2%
1964 40 VA R U.S. House District 06 General 1 57,987 56.2%
1966 42 VA R U.S. House District 06 General 1 55,342 80.8%
1968 44 VA R U.S. House District 06 General 1 91,549 92.2%
1970 46 VA R U.S. House District 06 General 1 62,350 74.6%


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



Ideology Data for Richard Poff


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
1953 29 House 76 18 R 79 69 27
1954 30 House 87 13 R 76 24 99 11
1955 31 House 84 16 R 61 39 100 20
1956 32 House 78 22 R 76 24 100 29
1957 33 House 86 14 R 48 52 100 11
1958 34 House 92 8 R 50 50 100 8
1959 35 House 100 0 94 6 R 69 31 100 0
1960 36 House 95 5 82 18 R 51 49 100 0
1961 37 House 96 0 90 9 D 34 65 98 0 87
1962 38 House 100 0 88 12 D 43 57 99 0 80
1963 39 House 100 0 84 15 D 31 68 99 8 94
1964 40 House 100 0 92 8 D 29 69 99 0 100
1965 41 House 100 0 91 6 D 34 66 98 0 100
1966 42 House 100 0 94 5 D 39 60 99 0 100
1967 43 House 98 2 92 7 D 45 54 98 7 100
1968 44 House 90 6 91 6 D 52 46 99 0 96
1969 45 House 96 4 85 9 R 62 34 97 0 86
1970 46 House 80 7 72 19 R 80 12 95 6 79
1971 47 House 81 6 72 12 R 74 11 88 11 75
1972 48 House 79 11 74 15 R 83 9 92 0 75
Lifetime conservative rating:   91%


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.