RightDataUSA


Don Ritter

[Congressional biography]

Born: October 21, 1940 in New York City, NY

Education:

  • Lehigh University, B.S., 1961
  • Massachusetts Institute of Technology, M.S., 1963, Sc.D., 1966

Career:

  • Researcher, 1961-1966
  • Scientific Exchange Fellow in Moscow, 1967-1968
  • Assistant professor at Cal Tech University, 1968-1969
  • Professor and assistant to Lehigh University VP, 1969-1976
  • Lehigh University research program manager, 1976-1978


Election Results for Don Ritter


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

YearAgeStatePartyOfficeDistrictStagePosVotes%
1978 37 PA R U.S. House District 15 Primary 1 11,057 46.6%
1978 37 PA R U.S. House District 15 General 1 65,986 53.2%
1980 39 PA R U.S. House District 15 General 1 99,874 59.5%
1982 41 PA R U.S. House District 15 General 1 79,455 57.8%
1984 43 PA R U.S. House District 15 Primary 1 18,800 100.0%
1984 43 PA R U.S. House District 15 General 1 110,338 58.1%
1986 45 PA R U.S. House District 15 General 1 74,829 56.8%
1988 47 PA R U.S. House District 15 General 1 106,951 57.5%
1990 49 PA R U.S. House District 15 General 1 77,178 60.6%
1992 51 PA R U.S. House District 15 General 2 99,520 46.7%


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



Ideology Data for Don Ritter


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
1979 38 House 87 10 65 14 D 31 66 95 11 84
1980 39 House 75 15 78 19 D 43 48 91 22 63
1981 40 House 76 19 82 17 R 71 24 97 11 100
1982 41 House 78 21 83 16 R 73 26 98 20 86
1983 42 House 82 16 81 16 R 76 22 96 15 82
1984 43 House 73 20 74 21 R 56 42 95 15 50
1985 44 House 76 20 71 22 R 75 23 93 11 84
1986 45 House 88 10 65 29 R 70 29 94 10 86
1987 46 House 81 19 68 25 R 63 33 94 20 64
1988 47 House 84 11 66 26 R 57 39 94 11 84
1989 48 House 90 10 70 24 R 69 30 96 10 100
1990 49 House 78 19 73 22 R 66 32 96 6 83
1991 50 House 97 3 72 24 R 70 30 97 10 90
1992 51 House 88 13 76 22 R 71 28 98 20 88
Lifetime conservative rating:   82%


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.