RightDataUSA


James Blanchard

[Congressional biography]

Born: August 8, 1942 in Detroit, MI

Education:

  • Michigan State University, B.A., 1964, M.B.A., 1965
  • University of Minnesota, J.D., 1968

Career:

  • Lawyer
  • Advisor to MI Secretary of State, 1968-1969
  • Assistant MI Attorney General, 1969-1974
  • U.S. Ambassador to Canada, 1993-1996

Elected Office:

  • MI Secretary of State, 1968-1969


Election Results for James Blanchard


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

YearAgeStatePartyOfficeDistrictStagePosVotes%
1974 31 MI D U.S. House District 18 Primary 1 16,356 33.6%
1974 31 MI D U.S. House District 18 General 1 83,523 58.7%
1976 33 MI D U.S. House District 18 General 1 123,113 66.1%
1978 35 MI D U.S. House District 18 General 1 113,037 74.5%
1980 37 MI D U.S. House District 18 General 1 135,705 65.3%
1982 39 MI D Governor Primary 1 406,941 50.2%
1982 39 MI D Governor General 1 1,561,291 51.4%
1986 43 MI D Governor Primary 1 428,175 93.7%
1986 43 MI D Governor General 1 1,632,138 68.1%
1990 47 MI D Governor Primary 1 371,962 100.0%
1990 47 MI D Governor General 2 1,258,539 49.1%
2002 59 MI D Governor Primary 3 254,586 24.3%


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



Ideology Data for James Blanchard


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
1975 32 House 15 85 90 10 R 34 66 99 95 14
1976 33 House 15 83 86 11 R 29 71 97 70 11
1977 34 House 18 81 87 12 D 77 22 99 60 8
1978 35 House 15 82 85 12 D 80 17 98 65 4
1979 36 House 9 85 92 5 D 80 16 95 83 5
1980 37 House 18 74 88 6 D 78 19 94 72 18
1981 38 House 19 73 86 7 R 34 61 91 84 8
1982 39 House 8 38 42 1 R 8 26 41 80 25
Lifetime conservative rating:   10%


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.