Sen. James “Jim” Jeffords

Former Senator from Vermont

Elected Positions

Dates	Title	Representing
1989-2006	Senator	Vermont
1975-1988	Representative	Vermont's At-Large District

See Also: OpenSecrets.org | Congress.gov

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Sponsorship Analysis

Jeffords was a left-leaning Independent according to GovTrack's own analysis of bill sponsorship from Jeffords’s time serving in the Senate.

Use this chart to compare Jeffords to other members of the Senate in the 109^th Congress on leadership and ideology.

This chart is based on principal components analysis for ideology and PageRank for leadership. See analysis methodology.

Bill Sponsorship & Cosponsorship

Some of Jeffords’s most recently sponsored bills include...

View All » (including bills from previous years)

Voting Record

From Jan 1989 to Dec 2006, Jeffords missed 246 of 6,068 roll call votes, which is 4.1%. This is worse than the median of 2.0% among the lifetime records of senators serving in Dec 2006. The chart below reports missed votes over time.

Show the numbers...

Time Period	Votes Elligible	Missed Votes	Percent	Percentile
1989 Jan-Mar	26	5	19.2%	97^th
1989 Apr-Jun	77	4	5.2%	85^th
1989 Jul-Sep	118	13	11.0%	97^th
1989 Oct-Nov	91	14	15.4%	94^th
1990 Jan-Mar	48	1	2.1%	59^th
1990 Apr-Jun	95	7	7.4%	91^st
1990 Jul-Sep	114	0	0.0%	0^th
1990 Oct-Oct	69	1	1.4%	69^th
1991 Jan-Mar	41	6	14.6%	97^th
1991 Apr-Jun	74	0	0.0%	0^th
1991 Jul-Sep	96	5	5.2%	92^nd
1991 Oct-Nov	69	6	8.7%	92^nd
1992 Jan-Mar	61	1	1.6%	56^th
1992 Apr-Jun	74	5	6.8%	89^th
1992 Jul-Sep	117	8	6.8%	81^st
1992 Oct-Oct	18	5	27.8%	92^nd
1993 Feb-Mar	93	0	0.0%	0^th
1993 Apr-Jun	99	3	3.0%	69^th
1993 Jul-Sep	109	2	1.8%	67^th
1993 Oct-Nov	94	7	7.4%	91^st
1994 Jan-Mar	86	1	1.2%	34^th
1994 Apr-Jun	92	2	2.2%	59^th
1994 Jul-Sep	136	5	3.7%	73^rd
1994 Oct-Dec	15	0	0.0%	0^th
1995 Jan-Mar	125	6	4.8%	78^th
1995 Apr-Jun	171	5	2.9%	75^th
1995 Jul-Sep	184	3	1.6%	65^th
1995 Oct-Dec	133	1	0.8%	55^th
1996 Jan-Mar	60	2	3.3%	77^th
1996 Apr-Jun	122	1	0.8%	62^nd
1996 Jul-Sep	121	2	1.7%	83^rd
1996 Oct-Oct	3	0	0.0%	0^th
1997 Jan-Mar	35	0	0.0%	0^th
1997 Apr-Jun	125	5	4.0%	91^st
1997 Jul-Sep	103	3	2.9%	78^th
1997 Oct-Nov	35	0	0.0%	0^th
1998 Jan-Mar	52	2	3.8%	67^th
1998 Apr-Jun	131	0	0.0%	0^th
1998 Jul-Sep	109	1	0.9%	36^th
1998 Oct-Oct	22	1	4.5%	84^th
1999 Jan-Mar	81	0	0.0%	0^th
1999 Apr-Jun	111	5	4.5%	83^rd
1999 Jul-Sep	112	1	0.9%	46^th
1999 Oct-Nov	70	0	0.0%	0^th
2000 Feb-Mar	51	0	0.0%	0^th
2000 Apr-Jun	120	1	0.8%	45^th
2000 Jul-Sep	89	6	6.7%	85^th
2000 Oct-Dec	38	8	21.1%	92^nd
2001 Jan-Mar	63	0	0.0%	0^th
2001 Apr-Jun	157	7	4.5%	93^rd
2001 Jul-Sep	68	5	7.4%	81^st
2001 Oct-Dec	92	6	6.5%	91^st
2002 Jan-Mar	59	6	10.2%	80^th
2002 Apr-Jun	107	7	6.5%	93^rd
2002 Jul-Sep	61	2	3.3%	63^rd
2002 Oct-Nov	26	0	0.0%	0^th
2003 Jan-Mar	112	5	4.5%	85^th
2003 Apr-Jun	150	5	3.3%	83^rd
2003 Jul-Sep	108	4	3.7%	79^th
2003 Oct-Nov	89	1	1.1%	35^th
2004 Jan-Mar	64	1	1.6%	56^th
2004 Apr-Jun	88	7	8.0%	93^rd
2004 Jul-Sep	42	1	2.4%	54^th
2004 Oct-Dec	22	1	4.5%	62^nd
2005 Jan-Mar	81	0	0.0%	0^th
2005 Apr-Jun	89	16	18.0%	99^th
2005 Jul-Sep	76	0	0.0%	0^th
2005 Oct-Dec	120	0	0.0%	0^th
2006 Jan-Mar	83	4	4.8%	86^th
2006 Apr-Jun	107	5	4.7%	81^st
2006 Jul-Sep	73	0	0.0%	0^th
2006 Nov-Dec	16	9	56.3%	98^th

Primary Sources

The information on this page is originally sourced from a variety of materials, including:

The House and Senate websites, for committee membership and voting records
Congressional Biographical Directory for elected positions
United States Congressional Roll Call Voting Records, 1789-1990 by Howard L. Rosenthal and Keith T. Poole.
Martis’s “The Historical Atlas of Political Parties in the United States Congress”, via Keith Poole’s roll call votes data set, for political party affiliation for Members of Congress from 1789 through about year 2000
Congressional Pictorial Directory for the photo
THOMAS, for sponsored bills

Recent Legislative Activity

Elections and Offices

Sen. James “Jim” Jeffords [I-VT, 1989-2006] leaves office as Senator from Vermont

Dec 09, 2006

Elections and Offices

Sen. James “Jim” Jeffords [I-VT, 1989-2006] takes office as Senator from Vermont

Jan 03, 1989

Elections and Offices

Sen. James “Jim” Jeffords [I-VT, 1989-2006] leaves office as Representative for Vermont At Large

Oct 22, 1988

Elections and Offices

Sen. James “Jim” Jeffords [I-VT, 1989-2006] takes office as Representative for Vermont At Large

Jan 14, 1975