RightDataUSA


Benjamin James

[Congressional biography]

Born: August 1, 1885 in Philadelphia, PA
Died: January 26, 1961 in Bryn Mawr, PA

Military Service:

  • U.S. Army, World War I
  • U.S. Army Reserve

Career:

  • President of Franklin Printing Co.

Elected Office:

  • Radnor Township commissioner, 1929-1936
  • PA House, 1939-1947


Election Results for Benjamin James


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

YearAgeStatePartyOfficeDistrictStagePosVotes%
1948 62 PA R U.S. House District 07 General 1 91,394 61.3%
1950 64 PA R U.S. House District 07 General 1 91,387 62.7%
1952 66 PA R U.S. House District 07 General 1 127,918 61.7%
1954 68 PA R U.S. House District 07 General 1 101,282 60.9%
1956 70 PA R U.S. House District 07 Primary 1 44,857 79.1%
1956 70 PA R U.S. House District 07 General 1 137,764 61.9%


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



Ideology Data for Benjamin James


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
1949 63 House 86 8 D 87 0
1950 64 House 93 3 D 76 7
1951 65 House 79 13 D 88 15
1952 66 House 61 25 D 86 8
1953 67 House 82 11 R 80 86 18
1954 68 House 77 13 R 61 13 75 13
1955 69 House 65 6 R 39 32 61 0
1956 70 House 78 3 R 71 24 86 43
1957 71 House 64 10 R 45 35 76 56
1958 72 House 27 0 R 20 2 27 11


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.