RightDataUSA


Buddy Leach

[Congressional biography]

Born: March 30, 1934 in Leesville, LA
Died: August 6, 2022 in Baton Rouge, LA

Education:

  • Louisiana State University, B.S., 1955, J.D., 1963

Military Service:

  • U.S. Army, 1956-1959

Career:

  • Lawyer

Elected Office:

  • LA House, 1967-1978, 1984-1988


Election Results for Buddy Leach


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

YearAgeStatePartyOfficeDistrictStagePosVotes%
1967 33 LA D State House District 033 Primary 1 12,530 29.1%
1968 34 LA D State House District 033 General 1 7,197 47.5%
1971 37 LA D State House District 030 Primary 1 5,206 54.8%
1972 38 LA D State House District 030 General 1 4,375 100.0%
1975 41 LA D State House District 030 Open Primary 1 7,524 69.0%
1975 41 LA D State House District 030 General 1 3,057 100.0%
1978 44 LA D U.S. House District 04 Open Primary 1 35,010 26.9%
1978 44 LA D U.S. House District 04 General 1 65,583 50.1%
1980 46 LA D U.S. House District 04 Open Primary 1 35,847 29.1%
1980 46 LA D U.S. House District 04 General 2 58,705 36.2%
1983 49 LA D State House District 030 General 1 7,801 53.2%
1987 53 LA D Treasurer General 3 210,323 15.4%
1988 54 LA D U.S. House District 04 Special Open Primary 5 13,646 10.8%
2003 69 LA D Governor Open Primary 4 187,872 13.8%
2007 73 LA D State Senate District 030 Open Primary 1 10,219 39.4%
2007 73 LA D State Senate District 030 General 2 8,777 48.5%


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



Ideology Data for Buddy Leach


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 45 House 79 3 30 52 D 28 53 80 6 83
1980 46 House 51 9 31 31 D 38 32 57 18 71
Lifetime conservative rating:   79%


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 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 2025) were calculated based on key votes as selected by the creators of this website.