RightDataUSA


Nick Smith

[Congressional biography]

Born: November 5, 1934 in Addison, MI

Education:

  • Michigan State University, B.A., 1957
  • University of Delaware, M.S., 1959

Military Service:

  • U.S. Air Force, 1959-1961

Career:

  • Businessman
  • Farmer
  • Director, U.S. Department of Agriculture, 1972-1974

Elected Office:

  • Hillsdale County supervisor, 1966-1968
  • MI House, 1978-1982
  • MI Senate, 1983-1993


Election Results for Nick Smith


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

YearAgeStatePartyOfficeDistrictStagePosVotes%
1992 57 MI R U.S. House District 07 Primary 1 26,029 43.0%
1992 57 MI R U.S. House District 07 General 1 133,972 87.6%
1994 59 MI R U.S. House District 07 Primary 1 23,146 67.5%
1994 59 MI R U.S. House District 07 General 1 115,621 65.1%
1996 61 MI R U.S. House District 07 Primary 1 40,019 74.6%
1996 61 MI R U.S. House District 07 General 1 120,227 55.0%
1998 63 MI R U.S. House District 07 Primary 1 29,916 100.0%
1998 63 MI R U.S. House District 07 General 1 104,656 57.5%
2000 65 MI R U.S. House District 07 Primary 1 37,729 100.0%
2000 65 MI R U.S. House District 07 General 1 147,369 61.1%
2002 67 MI R U.S. House District 07 Primary 1 36,071 100.0%
2002 67 MI R U.S. House District 07 General 1 121,142 59.7%


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



Ideology Data for Nick 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
1993 58 House 84 9 87 9 D 32 62 96 15 88
1994 59 House 89 8 91 7 D 45 51 97 5 95
1995 60 House 82 17 90 8 D 18 81 98 0 100
1996 61 House 73 22 86 11 D 34 65 96 10 95
1997 62 House 82 15 88 9 D 35 63 97 15 88
1998 63 House 88 12 87 11 D 26 73 98 20 76
1999 64 House 90 8 D 24 76 97 10 84
2000 65 House 87 7 D 22 74 93 11 92
2001 66 House 91 6 R 81 19 97 5 92
2002 67 House 86 11 R 93 7 93 5 92
2003 68 House 93 4 R 80 16 96 20 96
2004 69 House 91 3 R 67 24 91 0 100
Lifetime conservative rating:   91%


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.