RightDataUSA


James Shannon

[Congressional biography]

Born: April 4, 1952 in Methuen, MA

Education:

  • Johns Hopkins University, B.A., 1973
  • George Washington University, J.D., 1975

Career:

  • Lawyer
  • Aide to Rep. Michael Harrington and Rep. Bradford Morse

Elected Office:

  • MA Attorney General, 1987-1990



Election Results for James Shannon


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

YearAgeStatePartyOfficeDistrictStagePosVotes%
1978 26 MA D U.S. House District 05 Primary 1 18,529 22.4%
1978 26 MA D U.S. House District 05 General 1 90,156 52.2%
1980 28 MA D U.S. House District 05 Primary 1 41,207 54.4%
1980 28 MA D U.S. House District 05 General 1 136,758 66.0%
1982 30 MA D U.S. House District 05 Primary 1 80,533 99.9%
1982 30 MA D U.S. House District 05 General 1 140,177 84.6%
1984 32 MA D U.S. Senate Class 2 Primary 2 297,941 37.7%
1986 34 MA D Attorney General Primary 1 402,744 68.1%
1986 34 MA D Attorney General General 1 900,088 54.6%
1990 38 MA D Attorney General Primary 2 462,296 46.4%


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




Ideology Data for James Shannon


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
1979 27 House 6 92 92 6 D 83 14 96 95 5
1980 28 House 4 82 77 7 D 66 21 81 100 6
1981 29 House 12 85 86 9 R 32 67 95 95 18
1982 30 House 7 89 90 4 R 34 62 94 95 0
1983 31 House 11 88 90 6 R 17 80 95 100 5
1984 32 House 0 68 52 2 R 15 46 51 95 6
Lifetime conservative rating:   6%


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.