RightDataUSA


James Oliver

[Congressional biography]

Born: August 6, 1895 in South Portland, ME
Died: December 25, 1986 in Orlando, FL

Education:

  • Bowdoin College, A.B., 1917

Military Service:

  • U.S. Army, 1917-1919
  • U.S. Coast Guard, 1943-1946

Career:

  • Insurance businessman, 1930-1937
  • Real estate developer

Elected Office:

  • South Portland alderman, 1932-1933

Other notes:

  • Changed party affiliation to Democrat
  • Unsuccessfully contested the election of Robert Hale in 1956



Election Results for James Oliver


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

YearAgeStatePartyOfficeDistrictStagePosVotes%
1936 40 ME R U.S. House District 01 Primary 1 12,540 29.1%
1936 40 ME R U.S. House District 01 General 1 60,565 57.9%
1938 42 ME R U.S. House District 01 Primary 1 22,432 82.3%
1938 42 ME R U.S. House District 01 General 1 57,642 59.0%
1940 44 ME R U.S. House District 01 Primary 1 19,481 52.3%
1940 44 ME R U.S. House District 01 General 1 55,503 63.4%
1942 46 ME R U.S. House District 01 Primary 2 6,194 35.0%
1952 56 ME D Governor Primary 1 18,601 100.0%
1952 56 ME D Governor General 2 82,538 33.2%
1954 58 ME D U.S. House District 01 Primary 1 3,258 53.5%
1954 58 ME D U.S. House District 01 General 2 43,561 47.9%
1956 60 ME D U.S. House District 01 Primary 1 5,307 56.3%
1956 60 ME D U.S. House District 01 General 2 57,999 50.0%
1958 62 ME D U.S. House District 01 Primary 1 10,030 63.5%
1958 62 ME D U.S. House District 01 General 1 55,686 52.1%
1960 64 ME D U.S. House District 01 Primary 1 9,957 100.0%
1960 64 ME D U.S. House District 01 General 2 73,826 46.2%


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




Ideology Data for James Oliver


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
1937 41 House 63 31 D 89
1938 42 House 81 12 D 87
1939 43 House 72 25 D 90
1940 44 House 68 24 D 86
1941 45 House 74 9 D 81
1942 46 House 15 35 D 58
1959 63 House 0 100 98 2 R 43 57 100 89
1960 64 House 11 89 73 16 R 44 49 90 88


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.