RightDataUSA


Dick Zimmer

[Congressional biography]

Born: August 16, 1944 in Newark, NJ

Education:

  • Yale University, B.A., 1966, LL.B., 1969

Career:

  • Lawyer
  • Chairman of NJ Common Cause, 1974-1977

Elected Office:

  • NJ Assembly, 1982-1987
  • NJ Senate, 1987-1991


Election Results for Dick Zimmer


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

YearAgeStatePartyOfficeDistrictStagePosVotes%
1990 45 NJ R U.S. House District 12 Primary 1 15,834 37.7%
1990 45 NJ R U.S. House District 12 General 1 107,851 64.0%
1992 47 NJ R U.S. House District 12 Primary 1 24,150 100.0%
1992 47 NJ R U.S. House District 12 General 1 174,216 63.9%
1994 49 NJ R U.S. House District 12 Primary 1 16,529 100.0%
1994 49 NJ R U.S. House District 12 General 1 125,939 68.3%
1996 51 NJ R U.S. Senate Class 2 Primary 1 144,121 68.0%
1996 51 NJ R U.S. Senate Class 2 General 2 1,227,817 42.6%
2000 55 NJ R U.S. House District 12 Primary 1 19,084 62.0%
2000 55 NJ R U.S. House District 12 General 2 145,511 48.5%
2008 63 NJ R U.S. Senate Class 2 Primary 1 84,663 45.8%
2008 63 NJ R U.S. Senate Class 2 General 2 1,461,025 42.0%


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



Ideology Data for Dick Zimmer


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 46 House 89 11 79 19 R 60 39 99 20 70
1992 47 House 67 33 83 17 R 58 42 99 40 75
1993 48 House 59 39 76 21 D 37 61 98 40 71
1994 49 House 67 33 81 19 D 44 56 99 26 57
1995 50 House 58 41 77 22 D 39 59 98 40 68
1996 51 House 33 67 66 32 D 51 46 97 30 63
Lifetime conservative rating:   68%


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.