RightDataUSA


Gordon Smith

[Congressional biography]

Born: May 25, 1952 in Pendleton, OR

Education:

  • Brigham Young University, B.A., 1976
  • Southwestern University, J.D., 1979

Career:

  • Served two years as missionary in New Zealand
  • Lawyer
  • Law clerk in NM Supreme Court, 1979-1980
  • President of Smith Frozen Foods, 1980-1996

Elected Office:

  • OR Senate, 1992-1997 (President, 1995-1997)


Election Results for Gordon Smith


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

YearAgeStatePartyOfficeDistrictStagePosVotes%
1996 44 OR R U.S. Senate Class 2 Primary 1 224,428 78.1%
1996 44 OR R U.S. Senate Class 3 Special Primary 1 246,060 30.1%
1996 44 OR R U.S. Senate Class 3 Special 2 553,538 46.3%
1996 44 OR R U.S. Senate Class 2 General 1 677,336 49.8%
2002 50 OR R U.S. Senate Class 2 Primary 1 306,504 97.5%
2002 50 OR R U.S. Senate Class 2 General 1 712,287 56.2%
2008 56 OR R U.S. Senate Class 2 Primary 1 296,330 85.9%
2008 56 OR R U.S. Senate Class 2 General 2 805,159 45.6%


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



Ideology Data for Gordon 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
1997 45 Senate 84 16 83 17 D 65 35 99 25 75
1998 46 Senate 75 25 85 15 D 54 44 99 5 72
1999 47 Senate 86 14 86 14 D 43 57 98 15 76
2000 48 Senate 89 11 88 11 D 62 38 99 10 84
2001 49 Senate 81 18 R 91 8 98 25 80
2002 50 Senate 65 35 R 87 6 98 37 75
2003 51 Senate 86 7 R 88 3 93 24 78
2004 52 Senate 89 11 R 90 5 99 40 76
2005 53 Senate 81 17 R 71 22 98 20 57
2006 54 Senate 81 19 R 81 17 99 20 72
2007 55 Senate 55 44 R 55 43 99 60 48
2008 56 Senate 54 45 R 44 54 99 63 33
Lifetime conservative rating:   69%


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.