Sen. James Blaine
Former Senator for Maine
Blaine was a senator from Maine and was a Republican. He served from 1876 to 1881.
He was previously the representative for Maine’s 3rd congressional district as a Republican from 1875 to 1876; the representative for Maine’s 3rd congressional district as a Republican from 1873 to 1875; the representative for Maine’s 3rd congressional district as a Republican from 1865 to 1873; and the representative for Maine’s 3rd congressional district as a Republican from 1863 to 1865.
![Photo of Sen. James Blaine [R-ME, 1876-1881]](/static/legislator-photos/401495-200px.jpeg)
Alleged misconduct & resolution
Blaine faced an allegation of selling worthless bonds to Union Pacific Railroad for $64,000. On Jun. 6, 1876, the House Committee on the Judiciary ordered a report. On Jul. 10, 1876, he resigned.
| Jun. 6, 1876 | House Committee on the Judiciary ordered a report |
| Jul. 10, 1876 | Resigned. |
Voting Record
Missed Votes
From Feb 1876 to Mar 1881, Blaine missed 649 of 1,240 roll call votes, which is 52.3%. This is much worse than the median of 29.0% among the lifetime records of senators serving in Mar 1881. The chart below reports missed votes over time.
We don’t track why legislators miss votes, but it’s often due to medical absenses, major life events, and running for higher office.
Primary Sources
The information on this page is originally sourced from a variety of materials, including:
- unitedstates/congress-legislators, a community project gathering congressional information
- 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
- Biographical Directory of the United States Congress for the photo
