RightDataUSA


Dan Rostenkowski

[Congressional biography]

Born: January 2, 1928 in Chicago, IL
Died: August 11, 2010 in Powers Lake, WI

Military Service:

  • U.S. Army, 1946-1948 (Korea)

Elected Office:

  • IL Senate, 1954-1956

Other notes:

  • Convicted on April 10, 1996, of mail fraud
  • Full pardon granted by President William J. Clinton on December 22, 2000


Election Results for Dan Rostenkowski


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

YearAgeStatePartyOfficeDistrictStagePosVotes%
1958 30 IL D U.S. House District 08 Primary 1 33,982 100.0%
1958 30 IL D U.S. House District 08 General 1 73,413 74.6%
1960 32 IL D U.S. House District 08 Primary 1 43,924 100.0%
1960 32 IL D U.S. House District 08 General 1 81,092 67.2%
1962 34 IL D U.S. House District 08 Primary 1 59,150 84.3%
1962 34 IL D U.S. House District 08 General 1 112,778 60.8%
1964 36 IL D U.S. House District 08 Primary 1 76,110 100.0%
1964 36 IL D U.S. House District 08 General 1 137,715 66.1%
1966 38 IL D U.S. House District 08 General 1 94,631 59.9%
1968 40 IL D U.S. House District 08 General 1 105,003 62.8%
1970 42 IL D U.S. House District 08 General 1 98,453 73.9%
1972 44 IL D U.S. House District 08 General 1 110,457 74.0%
1974 46 IL D U.S. House District 08 General 1 75,011 86.5%
1976 48 IL D U.S. House District 08 General 1 105,595 80.5%
1978 50 IL D U.S. House District 08 General 1 81,457 86.0%
1980 52 IL D U.S. House District 08 Primary 1 43,081 89.1%
1980 52 IL D U.S. House District 08 General 1 98,524 84.7%
1982 54 IL D U.S. House District 08 Primary 1 62,017 90.8%
1982 54 IL D U.S. House District 08 General 1 124,318 83.4%
1984 56 IL D U.S. House District 08 Primary 1 74,432 88.3%
1984 56 IL D U.S. House District 08 General 1 114,385 71.3%
1986 58 IL D U.S. House District 08 Primary 1 54,399 87.2%
1986 58 IL D U.S. House District 08 General 1 82,873 78.7%
1988 60 IL D U.S. House District 08 General 1 107,728 74.6%
1990 62 IL D U.S. House District 08 General 1 70,151 79.1%
1992 64 IL D U.S. House District 05 Primary 1 56,059 57.2%
1992 64 IL D U.S. House District 05 General 1 132,889 57.3%
1994 66 IL D U.S. House District 05 Primary 1 46,683 50.1%
1994 66 IL D U.S. House District 05 General 2 63,065 45.6%


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



Ideology Data for Dan Rostenkowski


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
1959 31 House 0 91 90 2 R 33 50 84 100
1960 32 House 5 89 84 12 R 53 42 91 100
1961 33 House 9 83 88 3 D 86 3 88 100 0
1962 34 House 6 94 82 5 D 90 3 90 100 0
1963 35 House 0 93 88 0 D 86 3 87 92 7
1964 36 House 8 83 81 3 D 92 2 82 92 7
1965 37 House 4 90 88 2 D 79 4 85 72 13
1966 38 House 4 84 79 1 D 74 5 79 88 5
1967 39 House 6 72 80 0 D 72 4 71 79 8
1968 40 House 10 73 77 1 D 71 8 79 83 0
1969 41 House 18 53 64 5 R 49 26 70 50 27
1970 42 House 27 43 57 11 R 55 20 71 53 12
1971 43 House 28 55 67 12 R 49 35 79 68 37
1972 44 House 23 63 76 15 R 54 30 84 50 11
1973 45 House 26 60 72 13 R 26 57 82 68 30
1974 46 House 22 64 66 13 R 38 38 82 39* 18
1975 47 House 22 71 79 10 R 36 49 89 78 6
1976 48 House 22 57 71 10 R 27 55 79 67 13
1977 49 House 25 61 76 13 D 71 19 85 53 14
1978 50 House 26 63 71 17 D 71 21 82 55 10
1979 51 House 24 63 79 8 D 72 12 84 75 5
1980 52 House 24 61 78 7 D 77 12 82 50 12
1981 53 House 44 52 77 18 R 50 49 94 55 17
1982 54 House 42 56 80 14 R 44 44 90 85 19
1983 55 House 33 64 77 12 R 41 52 88 68 9
1984 56 House 34 46 68 11 R 39 42 80 72 11
1985 57 House 18 73 82 6 R 28 61 88 79 22
1986 58 House 36 58 84 5 R 19 66 85 68 15
1987 59 House 37 47 73 5 R 20 66 80 74 18
1988 60 House 32 58 80 8 R 29 58 91 82 18
1989 61 House 29 54 85 10 R 36 59 93 70 19
1990 62 House 33 56 76 12 R 33 59 89 71 14
1991 63 House 51 43 80 10 R 36 52 89 50 16
1992 64 House 31 54 90 6 R 18 71 96 95 0
1993 65 House 25 75 88 6 D 75 19 93 90 8
1994 66 House 22 56 82 2 D 78 15 85 94 6
Lifetime conservative rating:   12%


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.