RightDataUSA


David Skaggs

[Congressional biography]

Born: October 22, 1943 in Cincinnati, OH

Education:

  • Wesleyan University, B.A., 1964
  • Yale University, LL.B., 1967

Military Service:

  • U.S. Marine Corps, 1968-1971
  • U.S. Marine Corps Reserve, 1971-1978

Career:

  • Lawyer
  • Assistant to Rep. Tim Wirth, 1975-1977

Elected Office:

  • CO House, 1980-1986


Election Results for David Skaggs


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

YearAgeStatePartyOfficeDistrictStagePosVotes%
1986 42 CO D U.S. House District 02 Primary 1 10,681 58.2%
1986 42 CO D U.S. House District 02 General 1 91,223 51.5%
1988 44 CO D U.S. House District 02 Primary 1 10,837 100.0%
1988 44 CO D U.S. House District 02 General 1 147,437 62.7%
1990 46 CO D U.S. House District 02 Primary 1 34,526 100.0%
1990 46 CO D U.S. House District 02 General 1 105,248 60.7%
1992 48 CO D U.S. House District 02 Primary 1 35,248 79.4%
1992 48 CO D U.S. House District 02 General 1 164,790 60.7%
1994 50 CO D U.S. House District 02 Primary 1 11,947 100.0%
1994 50 CO D U.S. House District 02 General 1 105,938 56.8%
1996 52 CO D U.S. House District 02 Primary 1 20,427 100.0%
1996 52 CO D U.S. House District 02 General 1 145,894 57.0%


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



Ideology Data for David Skaggs


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
1987 43 House 35 65 91 9 R 24 76 99 84 9
1988 44 House 47 53 81 16 R 29 70 97 95 16
1989 45 House 22 78 94 6 R 35 65 99 85 7
1990 46 House 19 81 93 6 R 21 79 99 89 8
1991 47 House 24 76 91 8 R 36 63 99 85 0
1992 48 House 38 63 88 10 R 30 70 99 90 9
1993 49 House 27 73 93 6 D 82 18 99 75 13
1994 50 House 19 78 96 3 D 90 10 99 79 10
1995 51 House 31 68 89 9 D 90 10 99 85 0
1996 52 House 33 67 92 7 D 85 15 99 90 0
1997 53 House 33 67 91 8 D 93 7 98 100 4
1998 54 House 21 71 84 5 D 83 6 88 100 0
Lifetime conservative rating:   6%


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.