RightDataUSA


James Van Zandt

[Congressional biography]

Born: December 18, 1898 in Altoona, PA
Died: January 6, 1986 in Arlington, VA

Education:

  • Attended PA Railroad Apprentice School

Military Service:

  • U.S. Navy, 1917-1919, 1943-1946
  • U.S. Naval Reserve, 1919-1943, 1946-1959

Career:

  • Railroadman
  • National commander of VFW, 1934-1936
  • - Special rep. to PA Governor


Election Results for James Van Zandt


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

YearAgeStatePartyOfficeDistrictStagePosVotes%
1938 39 PA R U.S. House District 23 General 1 61,372 57.1%
1940 41 PA R U.S. House District 23 General 1 57,027 56.3%
1942 43 PA R U.S. House District 23 General 1 38,235 61.0%
1946 47 PA R U.S. House District 22 General 1 42,217 65.9%
1948 49 PA R U.S. House District 22 General 1 46,451 60.4%
1950 51 PA R U.S. House District 22 General 1 42,701 59.5%
1952 53 PA R U.S. House District 20 General 1 62,804 62.8%
1954 55 PA R U.S. House District 20 General 1 48,561 56.3%
1956 57 PA R U.S. House District 20 General 1 65,457 63.0%
1958 59 PA R U.S. House District 20 General 1 61,010 64.9%
1960 61 PA R U.S. House District 20 General 1 77,776 67.8%
1962 63 PA R U.S. Senate Class 3 General 2 2,134,649 48.7%


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



Ideology Data for James Van Zandt


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
1939 40 House 93 7 D 99
1940 41 House 85 15 D 100
1941 42 House 91 9 D 96
1942 43 House 50 35 D 83
1943 44 House 40 6 D 47
1947 48 House 89 8 D 93 0
1948 49 House 89 11 D 99 31
1949 50 House 73 24 D 97 15
1950 51 House 66 25 D 84 38
1951 52 House 81 19 D 98 23
1952 53 House 61 39 D 100 23
1953 54 House 84 13 R 79 99 18
1954 55 House 73 27 R 74 26 100 22
1955 56 House 74 23 R 46 49 97 30
1956 57 House 69 28 R 79 18 96 86
1957 58 House 56 42 R 80 18 99 89
1958 59 House 51 49 R 70 26 96 67
1959 60 House 55 45 65 33 R 74 26 97 67
1960 61 House 16 84 49 51 R 58 42 99 67
1961 62 House 61 35 60 36 D 62 35 97 30 50
1962 63 House 31 37 49 33 D 53 30 78 63 46
Lifetime conservative rating:   48%


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.