RightDataUSA


Paul Tonko

[Congressional biography]

Born: June 18, 1949 in Amsterdam, NY

Education:

  • Clarkson University, B.S., 1971

Career:

  • Public works engineer
  • State transportation agency employee, 1972-1974
  • NY Dept. of Public Service, 1974-1983
  • President/CEO, NY state energy research & development authority, 2007-2008

Elected Office:

  • Montgomery County supervisor, 1976-1983
  • NY Assembly, 1983-2007


Election Results for Paul Tonko


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

YearAgeStatePartyOfficeDistrictStagePosVotes%
2008 59 NY D U.S. House District 21 Primary 1 15,932 39.5%
2008 59 NY D U.S. House District 21 General 1 171,286 62.1%
2010 61 NY D U.S. House District 21 General 1 124,889 59.2%
2012 63 NY D U.S. House District 20 General 1 203,400 68.4%
2014 65 NY D U.S. House District 20 General 1 125,111 59.0%
2016 67 NY D U.S. House District 20 General 1 213,021 64.1%
2018 69 NY D U.S. House District 20 General 1 176,811 66.5%
2020 71 NY D U.S. House District 20 General 1 219,705 61.1%
2022 73 NY D U.S. House District 20 Primary 1 18,251 88.1%
2022 73 NY D U.S. House District 20 General 1 160,420 55.0%


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



Ideology Data for Paul Tonko


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
2009 60 House 99 1 D 97 3 99 100 0
2010 61 House 97 3 D 85 15 99 100 0
2011 62 House 98 2 D 84 16 99 100 4
2012 63 House 97 2 D 85 12 99 95 0
2013 64 House 97 3 D 93 7 99 95 12
2014 65 House 98 2 D 91 9 100 85 4
2015 66 House 98 1 D 91 9 99 95 8
2016 67 House 97 2 D 94 2 99 100 8
2017 68 House 99 0 R 14 83 99 100 4
2018 69 House 97 3 R 41 56 99 73 4
2019 70 House 99 0 R 0 100 99 95 0
2020 71 House 99 1 R 6 94 100 100 0
2021 72 House 99 0 D 100 0 99 100 3
2022 73 House 99 0 D 100 0 99 0
2023 74 House 94 6 D 99 1
2024 75 House 86 14 D 99 10
Lifetime conservative rating:   3%


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.