RightDataUSA


Jim Courter

[Congressional biography]

Born: October 14, 1941 in Montclair, NJ

Education:

  • Colgate University, B.A., 1963
  • Duke University, J.D., 1966

Career:

  • Peace Corps volunteer, 1966-1968
  • Lawyer
  • Assistant Washington DC coproration counsel, 1969-1970
  • Union County legal services, 1970-1971
  • Assistant Warren County prosecutor, 1973-1977
  • Founder of Warren County Legal Services, 1975


Election Results for Jim Courter


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

YearAgeStatePartyOfficeDistrictStagePosVotes%
1978 36 NJ R U.S. House District 13 Primary 1 10,541 38.3%
1978 36 NJ R U.S. House District 13 General 1 77,301 51.8%
1980 38 NJ R U.S. House District 13 Primary 1 25,779 100.0%
1980 38 NJ R U.S. House District 13 General 1 152,862 71.6%
1982 40 NJ R U.S. House District 12 Primary 1 39,354 63.1%
1982 40 NJ R U.S. House District 12 General 1 117,793 66.8%
1984 42 NJ R U.S. House District 12 Primary 1 21,887 100.0%
1984 42 NJ R U.S. House District 12 General 1 148,042 65.0%
1986 44 NJ R U.S. House District 12 Primary 1 15,037 100.0%
1986 44 NJ R U.S. House District 12 General 1 72,966 63.5%
1988 46 NJ R U.S. House District 12 Primary 1 25,816 89.0%
1988 46 NJ R U.S. House District 12 General 1 165,918 69.3%
1989 47 NJ R Governor Primary 1 112,326 29.0%
1989 47 NJ R Governor General 2 838,553 37.2%


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



Ideology Data for Jim Courter


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
1979 37 House 89 10 85 14 D 38 61 98 11 82
1980 38 House 85 11 83 15 D 40 52 96 11 68
1981 39 House 80 13 77 19 R 63 32 93 17 91
1982 40 House 78 14 65 24 R 64 25 88 11 75
1983 41 House 74 20 74 22 R 70 23 96 21 86
1984 42 House 71 12 66 21 R 51 40 89 19 79
1985 43 House 84 13 76 18 R 70 28 94 15 84
1986 44 House 84 14 75 24 R 69 29 97 25 64
1987 45 House 81 12 65 22 R 51 39 88 25 59
1988 46 House 71 13 70 18 R 49 39 84 26 75
1989 47 House 10 7 14 9 R 6 10 24 33 78
1990 48 House 74 17 71 21 R 60 32 93 18 73
Lifetime conservative rating:   76%


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.