RightDataUSA


Jim Gerlach

[Congressional biography]

Born: February 25, 1955 in Ellwood City, PA

Education:

  • Dickinson College, B.A., 1977
  • J.D., 1980

Career:

  • Lawyer

Elected Office:

  • PA House, 1991-1994
  • PA Senate, 1995-2002


Election Results for Jim Gerlach


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

YearAgeStatePartyOfficeDistrictStagePosVotes%
2002 47 PA R U.S. House District 06 Primary 1 27,821 100.0%
2002 47 PA R U.S. House District 06 General 1 103,648 51.4%
2004 49 PA R U.S. House District 06 Primary 1 50,809 100.0%
2004 49 PA R U.S. House District 06 General 1 160,348 51.0%
2006 51 PA R U.S. House District 06 Primary 1 30,088 100.0%
2006 51 PA R U.S. House District 06 General 1 121,047 50.7%
2008 53 PA R U.S. House District 06 Primary 1 39,232 100.0%
2008 53 PA R U.S. House District 06 General 1 179,423 52.1%
2010 55 PA R U.S. House District 06 Primary 1 35,575 79.8%
2010 55 PA R U.S. House District 06 General 1 133,770 57.1%
2012 57 PA R U.S. House District 06 Primary 1 45,206 100.0%
2012 57 PA R U.S. House District 06 General 1 191,725 57.1%


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



Ideology Data for Jim Gerlach


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
2003 48 House 91 9 R 91 9 99 5 76
2004 49 House 77 15 R 70 27 93 21 68
2005 50 House 81 17 R 67 30 98 32 56
2006 51 House 64 28 R 68 29 94 47 62
2007 52 House 72 25 R 40 57 98 40 52
2008 53 House 72 23 R 41 53 95 67 48
2009 54 House 69 25 D 51 48 93 20 76
2010 55 House 82 17 D 41 59 97 11 67
2011 56 House 84 16 D 26 74 99 15 52
2012 57 House 82 18 D 15 85 99 0 67
2013 58 House 90 10 D 17 83 98 5 48
2014 59 House 88 10 D 14 83 96 0 52
Lifetime conservative rating:   60%


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.