RightDataUSA


James Battin

[Congressional biography]

Born: February 13, 1925 in Wichita, KS
Died: September 27, 1996 in Billings, MT

Education:

  • Eastern Montana College, B.A., 1948
  • George Washington University, J.D.. 1951

Military Service:

  • U.S. Navy, World War II

Career:

  • Lawyer
  • Yellowstone County deputy attorney, 1953-1955
  • Billings city attorney, 1957-1958
  • U.S. District judge for MT, 1969-1990
  • Chief judge for district of Montana, 1978-1990

Elected Office:

  • MT House, 1958-1959
  • Resigned from Congress on February 20, 1969


Election Results for James Battin


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

YearAgeStatePartyOfficeDistrictStagePosVotes%
1960 35 MT R U.S. House District 02 Primary 1 31,512 100.0%
1960 35 MT R U.S. House District 02 General 1 78,277 50.9%
1962 37 MT R U.S. House District 02 Primary 1 35,106 100.0%
1962 37 MT R U.S. House District 02 General 1 79,315 55.4%
1964 39 MT R U.S. House District 02 Primary 1 32,496 100.0%
1964 39 MT R U.S. House District 02 General 1 84,241 54.1%
1966 41 MT R U.S. House District 02 Primary 1 29,840 100.0%
1966 41 MT R U.S. House District 02 General 1 76,015 60.2%
1968 43 MT R U.S. House District 02 Primary 1 41,210 100.0%
1968 43 MT R U.S. House District 02 General 1 83,888 67.8%


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



Ideology Data for James Battin


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
1961 36 House 70 9 67 19 D 20 65 87 0 86
1962 37 House 100 0 79 9 D 32 60 88 0 93
1963 38 House 80 0 76 10 D 23 59 81 0 93
1964 39 House 83 8 71 8 D 38 50 81 0 92
1965 40 House 96 2 80 10 D 34 53 87 0 100
1966 41 House 68 3 66 16 D 32 45 82 0 88
1967 42 House 83 7 80 8 D 43 44 87 8 100
1968 43 House 69 8 70 7 D 41 41 79 0 90
1969 44 House 9 0 R 0 0 6 0 0
Lifetime conservative rating:   92%


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.