RightDataUSA


James Pearson

[Congressional biography]

Born: May 7, 1920 in Nashville, TN
Died: January 13, 2009 in Gloucester, MA

Education:

  • University of Virginia Law School, 1950

Military Service:

  • U.S. Navy (pilot), 1943-1946

Career:

  • Lawyer
  • Assistant Johnson County attorney, 1952-1954
  • Johnson County probate judge, 1954-1956

Elected Office:

  • KS Senate, 1956-1960
  • Appointed to the U.S. Senate on January 31, 1962 to fill the vacancy caused by the death of Andrew Schoeppel


Election Results for James Pearson


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

YearAgeStatePartyOfficeDistrictStagePosVotes%
1962 42 KS R U.S. Senate Class 2 Special Primary 1 124,854 62.3%
1962 42 KS R U.S. Senate Class 2 Special 1 344,689 56.2%
1966 46 KS R U.S. Senate Class 2 Primary 1 101,523 50.3%
1966 46 KS R U.S. Senate Class 2 General 1 350,077 52.1%
1972 52 KS R U.S. Senate Class 2 Primary 1 229,908 82.2%
1972 52 KS R U.S. Senate Class 2 General 1 622,591 71.4%


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



Ideology Data for James Pearson


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
1962 42 Senate 76 3 63 11 D 42 41 77 17 73
1963 43 Senate 84 2 82 4 D 36 44 80 18 80
1964 44 Senate 73 2 72 7 D 37 38 78 35 81
1965 45 Senate 62 3 57 6 D 35 30 65 6 83
1966 46 Senate 86 4 75 5 D 38 40 74 5 79
1967 47 Senate 73 25 76 19 D 61 36 95 15 60
1968 48 Senate 77 19 70 24 D 62 30 92 21 72
1969 49 Senate 77 22 70 26 R 81 14 94 33 57
1970 50 Senate 64 20 63 22 R 67 21 92 21 68
1971 51 Senate 73 22 61 30 R 62 28 91 37 40
1972 52 Senate 51 40 44 47 R 48 39 92 50 27
1973 53 Senate 45 33 39 43 R 41 38 82 56 26
1974 54 Senate 39 56 44 48 R 51 41 91 62 31
1975 55 Senate 58 37 57 36 R 65 20 91 33* 33
1976 56 Senate 60 23 52 33 R 60 32 88 50 50
1977 57 Senate 66 18 53 29 D 65 24 83 56 32
1978 58 Senate 38 46 30 53 D 63 11 78 35 16
Lifetime conservative rating:   52%


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.