CQ Voting Studies are an annual analysis of a member's support or opposition to a given position. Interest Group Ratings are based on rankings from groups chosen to represent liberal, conservative, business and labor viewpoints.Voting Participation scores are based on the number of times a member voted "yea" or "nay" on roll call votes (not including quorum calls in the House). CQ Vote Studies Year Presidential Support Party Unity   S* O* S O 1998 51% 49% 63% 36% 1997 55 45 72 28 1996 57 43 76 24 1995 35 65 83 17 1994 71 29 81 18 1993 54 43 82 17 S=Support; O=Oppose
Voting Participation Year % 1998 99 1997 99 1996 100 1995 99 1994 99 1993 99	Interest Groups Year ADA AFL-CIO CCUS ACU 1998 30% n/a 67% 42 % 1997 50 38 90 56 1996 25 9 88 60 1995 25 8 92 56 1994 20 33 100 67 1993 20 25 91 75
Note on Interest Groups: ADA=Americans for Democratic Action; AFL-CIO=American Federation of Labor-Congress of Industrial Organizations; CCUS=Chamber of Commerce of the United States; ACU=American Conservative Union

DELAWARE : At large

Delaware is considered a bellwether in national elections. The state's voters supported the winning presidential ticket 12 times in a row and pursue ticket-splitting with rare relish in the local elections. In congressional elections, the state has embraced Republican Rep. Castle with large majorities.

Democrats are strong in Wilmington, the state's largest city. Fifty years ago, almost half the state's residents lived here, but the city's 72,000 residents now cast only about 10 percent of Delaware's vote, largely because of migration to the booming suburbs. Dover, the capital, is set in the state's midsection, in Kent County. It, too, has a strong Democratic constituency.

The GOP's strength lies in Wilmington's suburbs and south of the Chesapeake and Delaware canal, in the poultry farms and coastal marshes of the Delmarva Peninsula. A string of beach resorts at the state's far southeast corner draws hundreds of thousands of tourists each year. The growing number of retirees in these beach communities has made rural Sussex County one of the state's fastest-growing areas and increased the county's conservative tenor.

Delaware enjoys relatively low unemployment, and its favorable tax rates attract the headquarters of many financial services companies, especially credit card firms.

Thanks to liberal incorporation rules, Delaware is the on-paper home to half of the Fortune 500, which keeps the state's specialized business court busy. Wilmington is the very real home to the DuPont Co., one of Delaware's largest private employers.

Major Industry
Financial services, manufacturing, tourism

Military Bases
Dover Air Force Base, 4,073 military, 1,128 civilian (1998)

Population
724,842 (1998 est.)

Cities
Wilmington, 69,490; Dover, 30,414; Newark, 27,870 (1996)

People
69% urban; 12% age 65+ (middle third nationally); 57% married couples, 26% married couples with children; 21% college educated (middle third nationally); 61% white collar (middle third nationally), 25% blue collar (middle third nationally) (1990)

Race
79% white, 19% black, 2% Asian; 3% Hispanic origin (1996)

Median Household Income
$41,622 (top third nationally) (1997)

Unusual Features
Ralph Nader wrote "The Company State" (1971) describing the du Pont family's influence on Delaware; the family once owned the newspaper and held the governor's mansion.

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