RightDataUSA


Paul Simon

[Congressional biography]

Born: November 29, 1928 in Eugene, OR
Died: December 9, 2003 in Springfield, IL (following heart surgery)

Education:

  • Attended University of Oregon, 1945-1946 and Dana College, 1946-1948

Military Service:

  • U.S. Army, 1951-1953

Career:

  • Newspaper editor/publisher, 1948-1966
  • Teacher at Sangamon State University, 1972-1973

Elected Office:

  • IL House, 1955-1963
  • IL Senate, 1963-1968
  • IL Lt. Governor, 1969-1973
  • Candidate for Democrat nomination for President, 1988


Election Results for Paul Simon


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

YearAgeStatePartyOfficeDistrictStagePosVotes%
1968 39 IL D Lt. Governor General 1 2,222,331 50.9%
1972 43 IL D Governor Primary 2 694,900 48.6%
1974 45 IL D U.S. House District 24 Primary 1 47,727 68.4%
1974 45 IL D U.S. House District 24 General 1 108,417 59.6%
1976 47 IL D U.S. House District 24 General 1 152,344 67.4%
1978 49 IL D U.S. House District 24 General 1 110,298 65.6%
1980 51 IL D U.S. House District 24 Primary 1 38,005 72.8%
1980 51 IL D U.S. House District 24 General 1 112,134 49.1%
1982 53 IL D U.S. House District 22 General 1 123,693 66.2%
1984 55 IL D U.S. Senate Class 2 Primary 1 556,757 35.6%
1984 55 IL D U.S. Senate Class 2 General 1 2,397,303 50.1%
1990 61 IL D U.S. Senate Class 2 General 1 2,115,377 65.1%


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



Ideology Data for Paul Simon


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
1975 46 House 16 77 82 14 R 47 53 95 89 6
1976 47 House 15 82 85 10 R 25 67 93 84 9
1977 48 House 17 79 83 15 D 75 23 96 95 3
1978 49 House 12 73 77 10 D 88 7 84 81 5
1979 50 House 10 82 86 6 D 79 16 89 78 3
1980 51 House 13 78 80 7 D 65 21 83 82 16
1981 52 House 28 64 76 11 R 36 59 85 79 0
1982 53 House 16 73 81 4 R 31 56 85 89 0
1983 54 House 17 56 74 4 R 15 59 75 88 0
1984 55 House 7 44 42 3 R 12 31 40 90 13
1985 56 Senate 10 78 89 4 R 25 67 93 89 6
1986 57 Senate 13 86 89 11 R 19 78 99 89 10
1987 58 Senate 6 22 49 2 R 6 32 42 100 0
1988 59 Senate 0 54 70 1 R 31 42 72 100 0
1989 60 Senate 13 87 86 14 R 41 58 98 100 16
1990 61 Senate 8 92 90 8 R 20 80 99 94 13
1991 62 Senate 18 80 94 5 R 32 67 99 100 0
1992 63 Senate 16 84 88 10 R 27 73 99 95 8
1993 64 Senate 17 83 93 6 D 96 4 99 85 0
1994 65 Senate 16 78 94 4 D 84 15 98 95 4
1995 66 Senate 5 89 87 12 D 83 15 98 100 5
1996 67 Senate 21 79 92 8 D 83 17 99 90 0
Lifetime conservative rating:   5%


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.