Professional Career: High schl. teacher, 1966–69; Asst., AZ Gov. Castro, 1975.
Political Career: Maricopa Cnty. Bd. of Supervisors, 1976–91.
Ethnicity: Hispanic/Latino
Religion: Catholic
Family: Married (Verma); 2 children
The congressman from the 4th District is Ed Pastor, a Democrat who won a 1991 special election to succeed Morris (Mo) Udall, the revered, 14-term liberal who championed environmental causes. (At the time, the district’s boundaries were different.) Pastor grew up in Claypool, a mining town in Gila County. The oldest of Enrique and Margarita Pastor’s three children, he was the first in his family to graduate from college. He got a bachelor’s degree in chemistry from Arizona State University in 1966, and later earned a law degree at ASU. Pastor taught chemistry at North High School and then was the deputy director of a non-profit community organization called the Guadalupe Organization. He was an assistant to Democratic Gov. Raúl Castro, the first Hispanic governor of Arizona, in 1975. He was elected in 1976 to the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors, where he served until his election to Congress. In 1991, he defeated Republican Pat Connor, 56%-44%. He has not faced serious competition since. Read More
The congressman from the 4th District is Ed Pastor, a Democrat who won a 1991 special election to succeed Morris (Mo) Udall, the revered, 14-term liberal who championed environmental causes. (At the time, the district’s boundaries were different.) Pastor grew up in Claypool, a mining town in Gila County. The oldest of Enrique and Margarita Pastor’s three children, he was the first in his family to graduate from college. He got a bachelor’s degree in chemistry from Arizona State University in 1966, and later earned a law degree at ASU. Pastor taught chemistry at North High School and then was the deputy director of a non-profit community organization called the Guadalupe Organization. He was an assistant to Democratic Gov. Raúl Castro, the first Hispanic governor of Arizona, in 1975. He was elected in 1976 to the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors, where he served until his election to Congress. In 1991, he defeated Republican Pat Connor, 56%-44%. He has not faced serious competition since.
Pastor has been a faithful follower of the Democratic leadership and has a mostly liberal voting record. He supported the North American Free Trade Agreement of 1993 despite strong labor opposition, but he opposed normal trade relations with China and the free-trade agreement with Central America. He vigorously opposed Arizona’s English Only law and in 2010 joined fellow Arizona Democrat Raul Grijalva in imploring President Barack Obama to stop Arizona’s stringent immigration law from taking effect. Pastor called the law, which expanded law enforcement powers to detain suspect illegal immigrants, “a severe setback to civil rights in America.” He has sponsored legislation to provide amnesty to immigrants who were in the United States prior to January 2000. After a 2002 trip to Cuba, where he met with President Fidel Castro for three hours, Pastor urged the immediate end of the U.S. trade embargo with that country. Pastor serves in the Democratic leadership as a chief deputy whip, and is also active in the Hispanic Caucus.
Much of Pastor’s work has been on the Appropriations Committee, where he has often earmarked funds for local projects. He has evolved into the “go-to guy” for federal funds for Arizona because he is the only House or Senate appropriator from the state, and because most influential fellow Arizonans, like GOP Sen. John McCain and Republican Rep. Jeff Flake, ideologically oppose earmarks. When money is needed, said a Maricopa County supervisor, “you go to Ed.” In early 2009, Pastor took temporary control of the chairmanship of the Subcommittee on Energy and Water after Chairman Peter Visclosky of Indiana stepped aside for the duration of a grand jury probe into possible corruption in the appropriations process. The arrangement put Pastor at the helm of a $30 billion energy and water projects bill that year. Pastor supports alternative energy but also has noted that because coal and nuclear power will fulfill most of the nation’s energy needs for at least the near future, those two sources must be made more efficient.
National Journal’s rating system is an objective method of analyzing voting. The liberal score means that the lawmaker’s votes were more liberal than that percentage of his colleagues’ votes. The conservative score means his votes were more conservative than that percentage of his colleagues’ votes. The composite score is an average of a lawmaker’s six issue-based scores. See all NJ Voting
More Liberal
More Conservative
2012
2011
2010
Economic
87
(L) : 12 (C)
69
(L) : 30 (C)
63
(L) : 37 (C)
Social
78
(L) : 19 (C)
71
(L) : 29 (C)
67
(L) : 31 (C)
Foreign
69
(L) : 30 (C)
88
(L) : - (C)
78
(L) : 17 (C)
Composite
78.8
(L) : 21.2 (C)
78.2
(L) : 21.8 (C)
70.5
(L) : 29.5 (C)
Interest Group Ratings
The vote ratings by 10 special interest groups provide insight into a lawmaker’s general ideology and the degree to which he or she agrees with the group’s point of view. Some organizations provide just one combined rating for 2009 and 2010, the two sessions of the 111th Congress. About the interest groups.
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The first Almanac of American Politics was published in 1971, and it hasn’t missed an election since.
The nation’s most authoritative source of information about members of Congress, their districts,
the governors and the states is published in print form after the national elections every two years by the National Journal Group in Washington D.C.
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Jay Rockefeller Sen. Jay Rockefeller of West Virginia stunned political observers when he announced on Jan. 11 that he would not seek a sixth term in 2014. The Democrat is the state's senior senator, and chairs the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee.
Jay Rockefeller Sen. Jay Rockefeller of West Virginia stunned political observers when he announced on Jan. 11 that he would not seek a sixth term in 2014. The Democrat is the state's senior senator, and chairs the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee.
