RightDataUSA


Lester Wolff

[Congressional biography]

Born: January 4, 1919 in New York City, NY
Died: May 11, 2021 in Syosset, NY

Education:

  • Attended NYU

Military Service:

  • U.S. Air Force Auxiliary, 1945-1950, 1968-1980

Career:

  • Lecturer at NYU, 1939-1941
  • Head of Collegiate Institute marketing department, 1945-1949
  • Board chairman of Coordinated Marketing Agency, 1950-1964
  • Television moderator/producer, 1948-1960
  • Member of U.S. trade mission to the Philippines and Malaysia, 1962-1963


Election Results for Lester Wolff


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

YearAgeStatePartyOfficeDistrictStagePosVotes%
1964 45 NY D U.S. House District 03 General 1 96,503 50.7%
1966 47 NY D U.S. House District 03 General 1 81,959 50.2%
1968 49 NY D U.S. House District 03 General 1 98,226 52.1%
1970 51 NY D U.S. House District 03 General 1 94,414 54.4%
1972 53 NY D U.S. House District 06 General 1 109,620 51.5%
1974 55 NY D U.S. House District 06 General 1 101,237 66.7%
1976 57 NY D U.S. House District 06 General 1 112,422 61.8%
1978 59 NY D U.S. House District 06 General 1 80,799 60.0%
1980 61 NY D U.S. House District 06 General 2 80,209 47.2%


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



Ideology Data for Lester Wolff


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
1965 46 House 14 84 75 15 D 83 12 91 79 29
1966 47 House 5 84 68 23 D 70 19 82 76 37
1967 48 House 11 69 61 17 D 69 15 82 73 8
1968 49 House 14 73 74 15 D 73 18 87 75 17
1969 50 House 11 78 75 11 R 38 53 85 86 8
1970 51 House 7 73 54 24 R 52 35 79 88 6
1971 52 House 7 90 82 14 R 39 53 93 92 20
1972 53 House 11 79 74 15 R 38 41 86 94 10
1973 54 House 12 86 83 12 R 37 59 92 80 30
1974 55 House 25 68 70 19 R 42 55 91 74* 14
1975 56 House 16 74 81 13 R 26 66 92 79* 15
1976 57 House 19 76 78 16 R 27 71 91 85 12
1977 58 House 15 67 67 14 D 63 23 78 78 9
1978 59 House 30 61 69 22 D 61 34 90 65 4
1979 60 House 22 67 79 12 D 65 22 88 88 9
1980 61 House 26 61 74 12 D 59 31 85 72 39
Lifetime conservative rating:   17%


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.