RightDataUSA


Richard Vander Veen

[Congressional biography]

Born: November 26, 1922 in Grand Rapids, MI
Died: March 3, 2006 in Grand Rapids, MI

Education:

  • University of South Carolina, B.S., 1946
  • Harvard University, LL.B., 1949

Military Service:

  • U.S. Navy, 1941-1946, 1950-1952

Career:

  • Lawyer
  • MI Mental Health Commission, 1958-1963
  • MI State Highway Commission, 1964-1969

Elected Office:

  • East Grand Rapids Board of Education, 1969-1974



Election Results for Richard Vander Veen


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

YearAgeStatePartyOfficeDistrictStagePosVotes%
1958 35 MI D U.S. House District 05 Primary 1 10,256 100.0%
1958 35 MI D U.S. House District 05 General 2 50,203 36.2%
1960 37 MI D Lt. Governor Primary 2 125,018 28.2%
1974 51 MI D U.S. House District 05 Primary 1 23,508 100.0%
1974 51 MI D U.S. House District 05 Special Primary 1 4,696 100.0%
1974 51 MI D U.S. House District 05 Special 1 53,083 50.9%
1974 51 MI D U.S. House District 05 General 1 80,778 52.6%
1976 53 MI D U.S. House District 05 Primary 1 16,976 73.4%
1976 53 MI D U.S. House District 05 General 2 94,973 46.2%
1978 55 MI D U.S. Senate Class 2 Primary 3 89,257 15.3%


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




Ideology Data for Richard Vander Veen


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
1974 51 House 10 79 81 9 R 32 58 90 91 5
1975 52 House 13 86 91 8 R 37 62 99 84 6
1976 53 House 16 79 87 8 R 24 67 92 80 10
Lifetime conservative rating:   7%


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.