RightDataUSA


Joe Kolter

[Congressional biography]

Born: September 3, 1926 in McDonald, OH
Died: September 8, 2019 in Harrisburg, PA

Education:

  • Geneva College, B.S., 1950

Military Service:

  • U.S. Army, 1944-1947

Career:

  • Accountant, 1950-1967
  • School teacher, 1950, 1965-1967

Elected Office:

  • New Brighton borough council, 1961-1965
  • PA House, 1969-1982



Election Results for Joe Kolter


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

YearAgeStatePartyOfficeDistrictStagePosVotes%
1974 47 PA D U.S. House District 25 Primary 2 16,514 32.1%
1982 55 PA D U.S. House District 04 Primary 1 17,835 46.4%
1982 55 PA D U.S. House District 04 General 1 100,481 60.1%
1984 57 PA D U.S. House District 04 Primary 1 54,490 82.2%
1984 57 PA D U.S. House District 04 General 1 114,040 56.8%
1986 59 PA D U.S. House District 04 Primary 1 33,599 81.1%
1986 59 PA D U.S. House District 04 General 1 86,133 60.4%
1988 61 PA D U.S. House District 04 General 1 124,041 69.8%
1990 63 PA D U.S. House District 04 Primary 1 31,955 82.9%
1990 63 PA D U.S. House District 04 General 1 74,114 55.9%
1992 65 PA D U.S. House District 04 Primary 3 19,683 19.5%


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




Ideology Data for Joe Kolter


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
1983 56 House 30 62 77 12 R 13 67 85 80 14
1984 57 House 27 64 80 14 R 29 65 95 68 24
1985 58 House 38 60 80 12 R 28 69 92 65 11
1986 59 House 54 44 83 15 R 26 72 97 70 14
1987 60 House 53 44 78 10 R 32 61 88 71 5
1988 61 House 45 37 78 11 R 26 63 88 67 22
1989 62 House 54 39 73 17 R 45 48 91 65 28
1990 63 House 52 44 83 13 R 24 69 94 44 30
1991 64 House 62 35 76 19 R 36 58 94 56 28
1992 65 House 31 27 56 7 R 20 43 64 80 19
Lifetime conservative rating:   20%


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.