RightDataUSA


Bill Thomas

[Congressional biography]

Born: December 6, 1941 in Wallace, ID

Education:

  • Santa Ana Community College, A.A., 1961
  • San Francisco State University, B.A., 1963, M.A., 1965

Career:

  • Professor, Bakersfield Community College, 1965-1974

Elected Office:

  • CA Assembly, 1974-1978


Election Results for Bill Thomas


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

YearAgeStatePartyOfficeDistrictStagePosVotes%
1978 36 CA R U.S. House District 18 General 1 85,663 59.2%
1980 38 CA R U.S. House District 18 Primary 1 48,215 85.6%
1980 38 CA R U.S. House District 18 General 1 126,046 71.0%
1982 40 CA R U.S. House District 20 Primary 1 55,923 100.0%
1982 40 CA R U.S. House District 20 General 1 123,312 68.1%
1984 42 CA R U.S. House District 20 Primary 1 51,446 100.0%
1984 42 CA R U.S. House District 20 General 1 151,732 70.9%
1986 44 CA R U.S. House District 20 Primary 1 54,544 100.0%
1986 44 CA R U.S. House District 20 General 1 129,989 72.6%
1988 46 CA R U.S. House District 20 Primary 1 66,186 100.0%
1988 46 CA R U.S. House District 20 General 1 162,779 71.1%
1990 48 CA R U.S. House District 20 Primary 1 52,669 73.3%
1990 48 CA R U.S. House District 20 General 1 112,962 59.8%
1992 50 CA R U.S. House District 21 Primary 1 37,657 65.6%
1992 50 CA R U.S. House District 21 General 1 127,758 65.2%
1994 52 CA R U.S. House District 21 Primary 1 38,947 70.0%
1994 52 CA R U.S. House District 21 General 1 116,874 68.1%
1996 54 CA R U.S. House District 21 Primary 1 53,564 79.2%
1996 54 CA R U.S. House District 21 General 1 125,916 65.8%
1998 56 CA R U.S. House District 21 Primary 1 82,892 100.0%
1998 56 CA R U.S. House District 21 General 1 115,989 78.9%
2000 58 CA R U.S. House District 21 Primary 1 98,088 100.0%
2000 58 CA R U.S. House District 21 General 1 142,539 71.6%
2002 60 CA R U.S. House District 22 Primary 1 70,738 100.0%
2002 60 CA R U.S. House District 22 General 1 120,473 73.3%
2004 62 CA R U.S. House District 22 Primary 1 78,809 100.0%
2004 62 CA R U.S. House District 22 General 1 209,384 100.0%


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



Ideology Data for Bill Thomas


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
1979 37 House 91 2 87 7 D 26 72 92 6 92
1980 38 House 83 7 79 12 D 34 55 83 0 94
1981 39 House 75 11 69 11 R 76 14 86 6 90
1982 40 House 84 7 71 8 R 79 10 84 5 85
1983 41 House 84 10 81 10 R 72 21 92 16 68
1984 42 House 78 12 71 17 R 64 28 88 16 68
1985 43 House 84 11 79 15 R 61 33 92 10 79
1986 44 House 84 12 82 10 R 76 19 91 10 85
1987 45 House 88 9 81 8 R 64 25 90 4 71
1988 46 House 87 8 81 15 R 60 36 96 25 76
1989 47 House 90 7 81 15 R 72 28 96 15 78
1990 48 House 83 7 74 11 R 54 35 87 18 76
1991 49 House 95 3 80 12 R 72 22 91 11 79
1992 50 House 79 8 77 8 R 66 17 88 19 90
1993 51 House 91 7 86 11 D 52 47 97 5 78
1994 52 House 86 6 84 10 D 47 46 96 14 84
1995 53 House 96 4 92 7 D 23 75 99 10 76
1996 54 House 98 0 88 10 D 41 56 98 5 90
1997 55 House 96 2 88 10 D 35 65 98 10 80
1998 56 House 93 5 89 10 D 28 71 99 0 92
1999 57 House 83 9 D 24 70 91 11 67
2000 58 House 89 7 D 30 70 97 10 80
2001 59 House 90 5 R 86 9 96 15 67
2002 60 House 91 9 R 89 11 97 10 80
2003 61 House 95 4 R 95 5 99 5 80
2004 62 House 87 7 R 88 12 97 5 88
2005 63 House 86 7 R 78 20 95 17 76
2006 64 House 90 5 R 89 11 95 15 72
Lifetime conservative rating:   80%


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.