RightDataUSA


Jim Ross Lightfoot

[Congressional biography]

Born: September 27, 1938 in Sioux City, IA

Military Service:

  • U.S. Army and Army Reserve, 1956-1964

Career:

  • Police officer, 1959-1961
  • Farm reporter, 1961-1970, 1976-1984
  • Manager of farm equipment company, 1970-1976

Elected Office:

  • Corsicana city commissioner, 1974-1976


Election Results for Jim Ross Lightfoot


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

YearAgeStatePartyOfficeDistrictStagePosVotes%
1984 45 IA R U.S. House District 05 Primary 1 19,456 58.2%
1984 45 IA R U.S. House District 05 General 1 104,632 50.8%
1986 47 IA R U.S. House District 05 Primary 1 22,613 100.0%
1986 47 IA R U.S. House District 05 General 1 85,025 59.2%
1988 49 IA R U.S. House District 05 Primary 1 18,162 100.0%
1988 49 IA R U.S. House District 05 General 1 117,761 63.9%
1990 51 IA R U.S. House District 05 Primary 1 18,918 99.9%
1990 51 IA R U.S. House District 05 General 1 99,978 68.0%
1992 53 IA R U.S. House District 03 Primary 1 15,757 58.3%
1992 53 IA R U.S. House District 03 General 1 125,931 48.9%
1994 55 IA R U.S. House District 03 Primary 1 42,870 99.4%
1994 55 IA R U.S. House District 03 General 1 111,862 57.8%
1996 57 IA R U.S. Senate Class 2 Primary 1 101,608 58.6%
1996 57 IA R U.S. Senate Class 2 General 2 571,807 46.7%
1998 59 IA R Governor Primary 1 113,499 69.9%
1998 59 IA R Governor General 2 444,787 46.5%


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



Ideology Data for Jim Ross Lightfoot


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 46 House 84 16 85 14 R 63 38 99 10 79
1986 47 House 84 16 83 16 R 70 30 99 10 64
1987 48 House 88 12 89 10 R 65 34 99 8 74
1988 49 House 92 3 76 8 R 63 26 88 11 90
1989 50 House 98 2 91 7 R 72 27 97 5 79
1990 51 House 98 2 90 7 R 68 30 97 6 92
1991 52 House 95 5 86 12 R 81 19 99 0 100
1992 53 House 88 8 81 13 R 78 15 95 15 86
1993 54 House 95 5 87 10 D 35 63 97 10 91
1994 55 House 92 6 86 11 D 50 47 98 6 95
1995 56 House 98 0 95 4 D 22 77 99 0 84
1996 57 House 100 0 88 7 D 35 61 95 0 95
Lifetime conservative rating:   85%


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.