RightDataUSA


Jim Chapman

[Congressional biography]

Born: March 8, 1945 in Washington, DC

Education:

  • University of Texas, B.A., 1968
  • Southern Methodist University, J.D., 1970

Career:

  • Lawyer
  • District attorney, 1977-1984


Election Results for Jim Chapman


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

YearAgeStatePartyOfficeDistrictStagePosVotes%
1985 40 TX D U.S. House District 01 Special Open Primary 2 21,382 30.2%
1985 40 TX D U.S. House District 01 Special 1 52,665 50.9%
1986 41 TX D U.S. House District 01 General 1 84,445 100.0%
1988 43 TX D U.S. House District 01 General 1 122,566 62.2%
1990 45 TX D U.S. House District 01 General 1 89,241 60.2%
1992 47 TX D U.S. House District 01 Primary 1 81,080 100.0%
1992 47 TX D U.S. House District 01 General 1 152,209 100.0%
1994 49 TX D U.S. House District 01 Primary 1 57,454 100.0%
1994 49 TX D U.S. House District 01 General 1 86,480 55.3%
1996 51 TX D U.S. Senate Class 2 Primary 3 239,427 26.9%


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



Ideology Data for Jim Chapman


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
1985 40 House 21 16 R 19 25 37 29 71
1986 41 House 86 10 69 24 R 37 61 94 42 38
1987 42 House 88 9 71 22 R 39 60 94 52 9
1988 43 House 87 3 70 23 R 36 61 93 50 52
1989 44 House 85 12 70 22 R 49 47 93 50 39
1990 45 House 78 19 71 19 R 34 62 92 35 27
1991 46 House 84 8 68 21 R 40 49 90 38 26
1992 47 House 73 19 74 17 R 31 64 92 75 25
1993 48 House 86 9 75 16 D 78 17 91 45 25
1994 49 House 94 6 65 23 D 67 24 89 44 45
1995 50 House 73 15 53 32 D 52 31 83 53 32
1996 51 House 69 12 55 21 D 57 18 74 59 14
Lifetime conservative rating:   32%


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.