RightDataUSA


James Burke

[Congressional biography]

Born: March 30, 1910 in Boston, MA
Died: October 13, 1983 in Boston, MA

Education:

  • Attended Suffolk University

Military Service:

  • U.S. Army, World War II (counterintelligence agent in the South Pacific)

Career:

  • Real estate salesman
  • Boston registrar of vital statistics

Elected Office:

  • MA House, 1937-1939, 1947-1955


Election Results for James Burke


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

YearAgeStatePartyOfficeDistrictStagePosVotes%
1958 48 MA D U.S. House District 13 Primary 1 8,263 26.9%
1958 48 MA D U.S. House District 13 General 1 89,073 53.5%
1960 50 MA D U.S. House District 13 Primary 1 38,374 100.0%
1960 50 MA D U.S. House District 13 General 1 126,936 58.5%
1962 52 MA D U.S. House District 11 Primary 1 66,428 100.0%
1962 52 MA D U.S. House District 11 General 1 121,030 64.3%
1964 54 MA D U.S. House District 11 Primary 1 63,216 100.0%
1964 54 MA D U.S. House District 11 General 1 179,261 100.0%
1966 56 MA D U.S. House District 11 Primary 1 60,151 100.0%
1966 56 MA D U.S. House District 11 General 1 141,465 74.8%
1968 58 MA D U.S. House District 11 Primary 1 39,964 100.0%
1968 58 MA D U.S. House District 11 General 1 169,766 100.0%
1970 60 MA D U.S. House District 11 Primary 1 55,847 100.0%
1970 60 MA D U.S. House District 11 General 1 143,026 100.0%
1972 62 MA D U.S. House District 11 Primary 1 45,696 100.0%
1972 62 MA D U.S. House District 11 General 1 154,397 100.0%
1974 64 MA D U.S. House District 11 Primary 1 60,921 74.6%
1974 64 MA D U.S. House District 11 General 1 125,978 100.0%
1976 66 MA D U.S. House District 11 Primary 1 39,872 57.3%
1976 66 MA D U.S. House District 11 General 1 131,789 69.0%


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



Ideology Data for James Burke


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
1959 49 House 9 91 85 12 R 48 52 99 89
1960 50 House 5 95 76 24 R 56 44 100 100
1961 51 House 9 91 91 9 D 94 6 97 100 0
1962 52 House 25 63 84 9 D 87 7 96 88 8
1963 53 House 7 80 91 2 D 89 4 94 92 6
1964 54 House 0 92 94 3 D 96 4 96 92 0
1965 55 House 4 96 93 6 D 95 5 100 74 12
1966 56 House 5 95 98 3 D 95 5 99 94 4
1967 57 House 6 94 92 8 D 88 12 100 87 0
1968 58 House 6 94 94 6 D 90 10 99 75 9
1969 59 House 27 73 89 11 R 64 36 100 53 33
1970 60 House 11 89 93 7 R 69 31 100 61 17
1971 61 House 19 81 91 9 R 40 60 100 86 15
1972 62 House 7 93 91 9 R 54 46 100 94 0
1973 63 House 17 83 88 12 R 29 70 99 80 12
1974 64 House 28 71 87 11 R 53 47 99 65 19
1975 65 House 25 75 90 10 R 33 66 99 84 14
1976 66 House 22 72 81 14 R 35 61 93 60 17
1977 67 House 21 47 61 11 D 48 16 75 59 22
1978 68 House 23 62 72 19 D 54 29 92 53 13
Lifetime conservative rating:   12%


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.