RightDataUSA


Howard Wolpe

[Congressional biography]

Born: November 3, 1939 in Los Angeles, CA
Died: October 25, 2011 in Saugatuck, MI

Education:

  • Reed College, B.A., 1960
  • Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Ph.D., 1967

Career:

  • Associate professor at Western Michigan University, 1967-1972
  • Regional representative for Sen. Donald Riegle, 1976-1978

Elected Office:

  • Kalamazoo city council, 1969-1972
  • MI House, 1972-1976


Election Results for Howard Wolpe


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

YearAgeStatePartyOfficeDistrictStagePosVotes%
1976 36 MI D U.S. House District 03 Primary 1 11,863 60.6%
1976 36 MI D U.S. House District 03 General 2 95,261 48.6%
1978 38 MI D U.S. House District 03 General 1 83,932 51.3%
1980 40 MI D U.S. House District 03 General 1 113,080 52.0%
1982 42 MI D U.S. House District 03 General 1 96,842 56.3%
1984 44 MI D U.S. House District 03 General 1 106,505 52.9%
1986 46 MI D U.S. House District 03 General 1 78,720 60.4%
1988 48 MI D U.S. House District 03 General 1 112,605 57.3%
1990 50 MI D U.S. House District 03 Primary 1 11,171 100.0%
1990 50 MI D U.S. House District 03 General 1 82,376 57.9%
1994 54 MI D Governor Primary 1 242,847 35.2%
1994 54 MI D Governor General 2 1,188,438 38.5%


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



Ideology Data for Howard Wolpe


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 39 House 12 88 92 7 D 81 18 98 100 5
1980 40 House 17 81 85 15 D 70 27 98 100 16
1981 41 House 8 91 92 8 R 26 72 99 95 0
1982 42 House 11 88 88 11 R 34 66 99 100 0
1983 43 House 11 88 93 4 R 16 82 98 95 0
1984 44 House 5 95 93 6 R 23 76 99 95 0
1985 45 House 7 93 91 6 R 21 76 97 85 11
1986 46 House 10 88 91 7 R 16 82 97 95 5
1987 47 House 12 88 91 2 R 14 82 95 96 0
1988 48 House 18 82 92 6 R 17 81 98 100 0
1989 49 House 7 90 92 4 R 28 70 97 100 4
1990 50 House 15 85 90 7 R 15 82 95 100 13
1991 51 House 3 97 96 3 R 23 74 98 100 0
1992 52 House 2 88 90 3 R 10 84 93 100 0
Lifetime conservative rating:   4%


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.