RightDataUSA


Denny Smith

[Congressional biography]

Born: January 19, 1938 in Ontario, OR

Education:

  • Williamette University, B.A., 1961

Military Service:

  • U.S. Air Force, 1958-1960, 1962-1967
  • OR Air National Guard, 1960-1962

Career:

  • Commercial pilot/flight engineer, 1967-1976

Other notes:

  • Son of Elmo Smith, cousin of Steven Symms


Election Results for Denny Smith


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

YearAgeStatePartyOfficeDistrictStagePosVotes%
1980 42 OR R U.S. House District 02 Primary 1 56,718 76.9%
1980 42 OR R U.S. House District 02 General 1 141,854 48.8%
1982 44 OR R U.S. House District 05 Primary 1 37,224 100.0%
1982 44 OR R U.S. House District 05 General 1 103,906 51.2%
1984 46 OR R U.S. House District 05 Primary 1 45,785 77.2%
1984 46 OR R U.S. House District 05 General 1 130,424 54.5%
1986 48 OR R U.S. House District 05 Primary 1 53,238 88.8%
1986 48 OR R U.S. House District 05 General 1 125,906 60.5%
1988 50 OR R U.S. House District 05 Primary 1 48,918 99.2%
1988 50 OR R U.S. House District 05 General 1 111,489 50.1%
1990 52 OR R U.S. House District 05 General 2 101,650 44.9%
1994 56 OR R Governor Primary 1 135,330 49.5%
1994 56 OR R Governor General 2 517,874 42.4%


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



Ideology Data for Denny Smith


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
1981 43 House 93 4 92 7 R 71 25 97 10 100
1982 44 House 88 4 94 3 R 74 16 92 6 90
1983 45 House 85 6 83 3 R 78 16 86 5 100
1984 46 House 88 7 85 5 R 73 21 90 0 100
1985 47 House 85 7 87 7 R 76 18 94 10 95
1986 48 House 90 10 86 7 R 74 21 94 0 95
1987 49 House 86 14 91 5 R 71 27 95 4 95
1988 50 House 79 0 89 5 R 65 24 92 5 96
1989 51 House 83 5 89 2 R 71 17 88 6 88
1990 52 House 87 2 75 6 R 59 21 81 6 86
Lifetime conservative rating:   94%


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.