RightDataUSA


John Olver

[Congressional biography]

Born: September 3, 1936 in Homesdale, PA
Died: February 23, 2023 in Amherst, MA

Education:

  • Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, B.S., 1955
  • Tufts University, M.S., 1956
  • Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Ph.D., 1961

Career:

  • Assistant professor at M.I.T.and University of Massachusetts, 1961-1969

Elected Office:

  • MA House, 1969-1972
  • MA Senate, 1973-1991



Election Results for John Olver


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

YearAgeStatePartyOfficeDistrictStagePosVotes%
1991 54 MA D U.S. House District 01 Special Primary 1 18,426 30.8%
1991 54 MA D U.S. House District 01 Special 1 70,022 49.6%
1992 55 MA D U.S. House District 01 Primary 1 36,290 99.8%
1992 55 MA D U.S. House District 01 General 1 135,049 51.5%
1994 57 MA D U.S. House District 01 Primary 1 27,867 99.7%
1994 57 MA D U.S. House District 01 General 1 150,047 99.4%
1996 59 MA D U.S. House District 01 Primary 1 19,088 99.6%
1996 59 MA D U.S. House District 01 General 1 129,261 52.7%
1998 61 MA D U.S. House District 01 Primary 1 27,620 99.8%
1998 61 MA D U.S. House District 01 General 1 121,863 71.7%
2000 63 MA D U.S. House District 01 Primary 1 10,715 99.5%
2000 63 MA D U.S. House District 01 General 1 169,375 68.2%
2002 65 MA D U.S. House District 01 Primary 1 49,907 100.0%
2002 65 MA D U.S. House District 01 General 1 137,841 67.6%
2004 67 MA D U.S. House District 01 Primary 1 35,037 100.0%
2004 67 MA D U.S. House District 01 General 1 229,465 99.0%
2006 69 MA D U.S. House District 01 Primary 1 63,875 100.0%
2006 69 MA D U.S. House District 01 General 1 158,057 76.4%
2008 71 MA D U.S. House District 01 Primary 1 33,513 79.3%
2008 71 MA D U.S. House District 01 General 1 215,696 72.8%
2010 73 MA D U.S. House District 01 Primary 1 43,363 100.0%
2010 73 MA D U.S. House District 01 General 1 128,011 60.0%


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




Ideology Data for John Olver


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
1991 54 House 65 1 R 11 42 64 100 0
1992 55 House 10 90 93 5 R 11 87 98 100 0
1993 56 House 14 86 96 2 D 82 17 98 95 9
1994 57 House 3 97 98 1 D 78 22 99 100 0
1995 58 House 8 89 97 2 D 89 11 99 95 4
1996 59 House 6 92 97 2 D 84 15 98 95 0
1997 60 House 13 87 96 3 D 80 20 99 100 4
1998 61 House 7 93 96 1 D 85 12 98 100 0
1999 62 House 96 2 D 81 15 97 95 0
2000 63 House 96 3 D 80 20 99 90 4
2001 64 House 98 1 R 12 84 98 100 0
2002 65 House 97 1 R 21 68 96 95 0
2003 66 House 97 1 R 15 85 99 100 12
2004 67 House 98 2 R 24 76 99 100 0
2005 68 House 95 2 R 15 85 95 100 0
2006 69 House 96 4 R 13 87 99 95 4
2007 70 House 98 1 R 3 96 98 95 0
2008 71 House 99 0 R 16 83 99 100 0
2009 72 House 97 0 D 99 1 97 100 0
2010 73 House 99 0 D 90 10 98 100 0
2011 74 House 86 1 D 74 11 87 100 4
2012 75 House 94 1 D 85 12 95 95 0
Lifetime conservative rating:   2%


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.