RightDataUSA


Carl Pursell

[Congressional biography]

Born: December 19, 1932 in Imlay City, MI
Died: June 11, 2009 in Plymouth, MI

Education:

  • Eastern Michigan University, B.A., 1957, M.A., 1962

Military Service:

  • U.S. Army, 1957-1959

Career:

  • Teacher/businessman

Elected Office:

  • Wayne County comissioner, 1969-1970
  • MI Senate, 1971-1977


Election Results for Carl Pursell


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

YearAgeStatePartyOfficeDistrictStagePosVotes%
1976 43 MI R U.S. House District 02 Primary 1 14,229 57.2%
1976 43 MI R U.S. House District 02 General 1 95,397 49.8%
1978 45 MI R U.S. House District 02 General 1 97,503 67.6%
1980 47 MI R U.S. House District 02 Primary 1 11,946 89.6%
1980 47 MI R U.S. House District 02 General 1 115,562 57.3%
1982 49 MI R U.S. House District 02 Primary 1 28,674 82.3%
1982 49 MI R U.S. House District 02 General 1 106,960 65.5%
1984 51 MI R U.S. House District 02 General 1 140,688 68.6%
1986 53 MI R U.S. House District 02 General 1 79,567 59.0%
1988 55 MI R U.S. House District 02 General 1 120,070 54.7%
1990 57 MI R U.S. House District 02 Primary 1 20,703 100.0%
1990 57 MI R U.S. House District 02 General 1 95,962 64.1%


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



Ideology Data for Carl Pursell


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 44 House 49 40 47 38 D 49 42 83 37 56
1978 45 House 46 41 47 40 D 58 35 84 63 42
1979 46 House 48 42 38 47 D 50 37 86 59 28
1980 47 House 27 61 37 49 D 58 30 83 89 17
1981 48 House 31 60 42 50 R 49 45 88 68 67
1982 49 House 45 37 38 40 R 42 42 73 47 21
1983 50 House 69 26 56 33 R 63 28 88 16 64
1984 51 House 63 20 53 32 R 50 40 85 47 47
1985 52 House 75 20 57 32 R 56 35 91 16 68
1986 53 House 74 22 50 46 R 51 46 96 45 55
1987 54 House 72 21 51 38 R 52 44 90 21 55
1988 55 House 79 16 62 35 R 47 46 96 53 46
1989 56 House 83 15 52 42 R 60 37 94 30 57
1990 57 House 65 19 57 30 R 53 38 89 29 57
1991 58 House 78 14 64 27 R 65 27 92 26 79
1992 59 House 60 29 65 24 R 54 31 89 6 73
Lifetime conservative rating:   51%


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.