RightDataUSA


James Oberstar

[Congressional biography]

Born: September 10, 1934 in Chisholm, MN
Died: May 3, 2014 in Potomac, MD

Education:

  • St. Thomas College, B.A., 1956
  • College of Europe, M.A., 1957

Career:

  • Teacher in Haiti, 1959-1963
  • Assistant to MN Rep. John Blatnik, 1963-1974
  • Staff, U.S. House Committee on Public Works, 1971-1974


Election Results for James Oberstar


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

YearAgeStatePartyOfficeDistrictStagePosVotes%
1974 39 MN DFL U.S. House District 08 Primary 1 50,493 49.1%
1974 39 MN DFL U.S. House District 08 General 1 104,740 62.0%
1976 41 MN DFL U.S. House District 08 Primary 1 67,894 100.0%
1976 41 MN DFL U.S. House District 08 General 1 206,755 100.0%
1978 43 MN DFL U.S. House District 08 Primary 1 83,588 100.0%
1978 43 MN DFL U.S. House District 08 General 1 171,125 87.2%
1980 45 MN DFL U.S. House District 08 Primary 1 38,450 55.7%
1980 45 MN DFL U.S. House District 08 General 1 182,228 70.4%
1982 47 MN DFL U.S. House District 08 Primary 1 94,377 86.7%
1982 47 MN DFL U.S. House District 08 General 1 176,392 76.7%
1984 49 MN DFL U.S. House District 08 Primary 1 56,381 65.1%
1984 49 MN DFL U.S. House District 08 General 1 165,727 67.2%
1986 51 MN DFL U.S. House District 08 Primary 1 84,505 100.0%
1986 51 MN DFL U.S. House District 08 General 1 135,718 72.6%
1988 53 MN DFL U.S. House District 08 Primary 1 43,013 100.0%
1988 53 MN DFL U.S. House District 08 General 1 165,656 74.5%
1990 55 MN DFL U.S. House District 08 Primary 1 74,814 100.0%
1990 55 MN DFL U.S. House District 08 General 1 151,145 72.9%
1992 57 MN DFL U.S. House District 08 Primary 1 52,392 78.3%
1992 57 MN DFL U.S. House District 08 General 1 167,104 59.0%
1994 59 MN DFL U.S. House District 08 Primary 1 62,451 100.0%
1994 59 MN DFL U.S. House District 08 General 1 153,161 65.7%
1996 61 MN DFL U.S. House District 08 Primary 1 50,824 100.0%
1996 61 MN DFL U.S. House District 08 General 1 185,333 67.3%
1998 63 MN DFL U.S. House District 08 Primary 1 78,078 84.1%
1998 63 MN DFL U.S. House District 08 General 1 173,734 66.0%
2000 65 MN DFL U.S. House District 08 Primary 1 64,189 100.0%
2000 65 MN DFL U.S. House District 08 General 1 210,094 67.8%
2002 67 MN DFL U.S. House District 08 Primary 1 50,582 100.0%
2002 67 MN DFL U.S. House District 08 General 1 194,909 68.6%
2004 69 MN DFL U.S. House District 08 Primary 1 37,353 85.5%
2004 69 MN DFL U.S. House District 08 General 1 228,586 65.2%
2006 71 MN DFL U.S. House District 08 General 1 180,675 63.6%
2008 73 MN DFL U.S. House District 08 General 1 241,797 67.7%
2010 75 MN DFL U.S. House District 08 Primary 1 56,510 80.5%
2010 75 MN DFL U.S. House District 08 General 2 129,091 46.6%


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



Ideology Data for James Oberstar


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
1975 40 House 6 92 97 2 R 35 65 98 100* 3
1976 41 House 8 92 94 6 R 24 76 99 90 9
1977 42 House 12 88 92 8 D 73 27 99 85 3
1978 43 House 15 85 89 11 D 75 25 99 70 4
1979 44 House 13 85 92 7 D 83 16 98 84 8
1980 45 House 16 84 92 8 D 69 31 99 83 16
1981 46 House 16 81 89 8 R 33 67 99 90 8
1982 47 House 10 89 95 4 R 34 65 95 100 9
1983 48 House 9 89 90 6 R 12 84 87 90 9
1984 49 House 5 83 88 4 R 19 71 87 94 5
1985 50 House 7 93 91 3 R 16 84 96 95 5
1986 51 House 18 82 92 4 R 18 79 96 85 5
1987 52 House 5 95 93 3 R 12 87 94 96 4
1988 53 House 8 92 93 6 R 21 77 99 90 12
1989 54 House 10 90 88 10 R 35 64 97 95 4
1990 55 House 13 83 92 4 R 17 82 98 83 0
1991 56 House 16 76 83 8 R 39 50 88 85 11
1992 57 House 15 85 94 5 R 17 82 99 90 4
1993 58 House 20 80 90 9 D 72 28 99 90 22
1994 59 House 14 86 93 4 D 72 26 98 83 15
1995 60 House 11 88 90 7 D 77 17 97 95 16
1996 61 House 22 75 86 11 D 75 24 98 80 20
1997 62 House 22 75 77 16 D 63 36 94 80 17
1998 63 House 26 74 89 10 D 83 15 98 95 13
1999 64 House 87 11 D 74 22 97 75 13
2000 65 House 88 8 D 72 24 97 79 8
2001 66 House 87 12 R 33 63 99 79 24
2002 67 House 91 6 R 32 68 98 79 4
2003 68 House 87 9 R 31 62 94 94 40
2004 69 House 88 9 R 30 67 96 79 12
2005 70 House 86 6 R 22 74 93 89 14
2006 71 House 85 12 R 32 61 96 80 22
2007 72 House 85 4 R 6 85 89 94 13
2008 73 House 87 1 R 17 81 89 94 4
2009 74 House 95 3 D 94 6 99 89 4
2010 75 House 97 0 D 93 7 96 95 0
Lifetime conservative rating:   10%


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.