Sen. John Sparkman

Former Senator from Alabama

Elected Positions

Dates	Title	Representing
1961-1978	Senator	Alabama
1949-1960	Senator	Alabama
1947-1951	Representative	Alabama
1946-1948	Senator	Alabama
1939-1946	Representative	Alabama's 8^th District
1937-1938	Representative	Alabama's 8^th District

Sponsorship Analysis

Sparkman was a centrist Democrat according to GovTrack's own analysis of bill sponsorship from Sparkman’s time serving in the Senate.

Use this chart to compare Sparkman to other members of the Senate in the 95^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 Sparkman’s most recently sponsored bills include...

View All » (including bills from previous years)

Voting Record

From Jan 1945 to Oct 1978, Sparkman missed 1,446 of 9,399 roll call votes, which is 15.4%. This is worse than the median of 10.6% among the lifetime records of senators serving in Oct 1978. The chart below reports missed votes over time.

Show the numbers...

Time Period	Votes Elligible	Missed Votes	Percent	Percentile
1945 Jan-Mar	14	14	100.0%	83^rd
1945 Apr-Jun	31	31	100.0%	83^rd
1945 Jul-Sep	24	24	100.0%	83^rd
1945 Oct-Dec	7	7	100.0%	83^rd
1946 Jan-Mar	13	13	100.0%	83^rd
1946 Apr-Jun	75	75	100.0%	83^rd
1946 Jul-Aug	48	48	100.0%	83^rd
1947 Jan-Mar	31	4	12.9%	67^th
1947 Apr-Jun	55	0	0.0%	0^th
1947 Jul-Jul	39	2	5.1%	67^th
1947 Nov-Dec	8	0	0.0%	0^th
1948 Feb-Mar	27	1	3.7%	43^rd
1948 Apr-Jun	72	1	1.4%	71^st
1948 Aug-Aug	8	0	0.0%	0^th
1949 Jan-Mar	38	0	0.0%	0^th
1949 Apr-Jun	85	0	0.0%	0^th
1949 Jul-Sep	78	0	0.0%	0^th
1949 Oct-Oct	4	0	0.0%	0^th
1950 Jan-Mar	55	0	0.0%	0^th
1950 Apr-Jun	68	0	0.0%	0^th
1950 Jul-Sep	73	0	0.0%	0^th
1950 Dec-Dec	10	0	0.0%	0^th
1951 Jan-Jan	1	0	0.0%	0^th
1951 Jan-Mar	19	2	10.5%	75^th
1951 Apr-Jun	70	1	1.4%	38^th
1951 Jul-Sep	88	13	14.8%	88^th
1951 Oct-Oct	15	0	0.0%	0^th
1952 Jan-Mar	12	0	0.0%	0^th
1952 Apr-Jun	94	2	2.1%	50^th
1952 Jul-Jul	6	0	0.0%	0^th
1953 Jan-Mar	8	0	0.0%	0^th
1953 Apr-Jun	42	0	0.0%	0^th
1953 Jul-Jul	37	0	0.0%	0^th
1954 Jan-Mar	30	0	0.0%	0^th
1954 Apr-Jun	49	0	0.0%	0^th
1954 Jul-Sep	64	0	0.0%	0^th
1954 Dec-Dec	8	0	0.0%	0^th
1955 Jan-Mar	26	0	0.0%	0^th
1955 Apr-Jun	37	1	2.7%	31^st
1955 Jul-Aug	23	0	0.0%	0^th
1956 Jan-Mar	42	1	2.4%	62^nd
1956 Apr-Jun	49	3	6.1%	75^th
1956 Jul-Jul	32	0	0.0%	0^th
1957 Jan-Mar	16	1	6.3%	63^rd
1957 Apr-Jun	45	5	11.1%	75^th
1957 Jul-Aug	35	4	11.4%	94^th
1958 Feb-Mar	38	1	2.6%	29^th
1958 Apr-Jun	84	1	1.2%	35^th
1958 Jul-Aug	75	0	0.0%	0^th
1959 Jan-Apr	57	2	3.5%	68^th
1959 May-Aug	125	15	12.0%	86^th
1959 Sep-Sep	30	0	0.0%	0^th
1960 Jan-Apr	71	11	15.5%	91^st
1960 May-Aug	116	16	13.8%	87^th
1960 Sep-Sep	5	0	0.0%	0^th
1961 Jan-Apr	31	0	0.0%	0^th
1961 May-Aug	136	7	5.1%	77^th
1961 Sep-Sep	35	0	0.0%	0^th
1962 Jan-Mar	22	0	0.0%	0^th
1962 Apr-Jun	62	1	1.6%	19^th
1962 Jul-Sep	119	4	3.4%	41^st
1962 Oct-Oct	18	0	0.0%	0^th
1963 Jan-Mar	8	0	0.0%	0^th
1963 Apr-Jun	66	5	7.6%	76^th
1963 Jul-Sep	54	10	18.5%	82^nd
1963 Oct-Dec	85	5	5.9%	50^th
1964 Jan-Mar	56	0	0.0%	0^th
1964 Apr-Jun	136	0	0.0%	0^th
1964 Jul-Sep	104	0	0.0%	0^th
1964 Oct-Oct	1	0	0.0%	0^th
1965 Jan-Mar	31	1	3.2%	22^nd
1965 Apr-Jun	94	14	14.9%	78^th
1965 Jul-Sep	105	41	39.0%	97^th
1965 Oct-Oct	15	11	73.3%	94^th
1966 Jan-Mar	28	8	28.6%	85^th
1966 Apr-Jun	56	26	46.4%	97^th
1966 Jul-Sep	103	23	22.3%	85^th
1966 Oct-Oct	32	15	46.9%	71^st
1967 Jan-Mar	53	16	30.2%	83^rd
1967 Apr-Jun	70	11	15.7%	78^th
1967 Jul-Sep	77	6	7.8%	40^th
1967 Oct-Dec	106	30	28.3%	88^th
1968 Jan-Mar	69	12	17.4%	78^th
1968 Apr-Jun	95	12	12.6%	45^th
1968 Jul-Sep	87	4	4.6%	18^th
1968 Oct-Oct	27	0	0.0%	0^th
1969 Jan-Mar	15	0	0.0%	0^th
1969 Apr-Jun	22	10	45.5%	98^th
1969 Jul-Sep	41	3	7.3%	65^th
1969 Oct-Dec	149	37	24.8%	90^th
1970 Jan-Mar	94	3	3.2%	22^nd
1970 Apr-Jun	89	8	9.0%	49^th
1970 Jul-Sep	115	21	18.3%	55^th
1970 Oct-Dec	103	50	48.5%	90^th
1971 Feb-Mar	24	5	20.8%	70^th
1971 Apr-Jun	89	12	13.5%	45^th
1971 Jul-Sep	105	20	19.0%	66^th
1971 Oct-Dec	191	20	10.5%	48^th
1972 Jan-Mar	117	44	37.6%	88^th
1972 Apr-Jun	127	53	41.7%	86^th
1972 Jul-Sep	206	75	36.4%	90^th
1972 Oct-Oct	72	22	30.6%	72^nd
1973 Jan-Mar	67	3	4.5%	32^nd
1973 Apr-Jun	189	31	16.4%	80^th
1973 Jul-Sep	166	35	21.1%	90^th
1973 Oct-Dec	167	33	19.8%	75^th
1974 Jan-Mar	92	19	20.7%	86^th
1974 Apr-Jun	175	47	26.9%	89^th
1974 Jul-Sep	138	16	11.6%	68^th
1974 Oct-Dec	133	36	27.1%	84^th
1975 Jan-Mar	117	10	8.5%	68^th
1975 Apr-Jun	135	16	11.9%	62^nd
1975 Jul-Sep	167	25	15.0%	78^th
1975 Oct-Dec	180	29	16.1%	84^th
1976 Jan-Mar	103	0	0.0%	0^th
1976 Apr-Jun	258	16	6.2%	27^th
1976 Jul-Sep	313	5	1.6%	7^th
1976 Oct-Oct	13	1	7.7%	29^th
1977 Jan-Mar	90	1	1.1%	12^th
1977 Apr-Jun	177	13	7.3%	42^nd
1977 Jul-Sep	231	48	20.8%	85^th
1977 Oct-Dec	127	29	22.8%	82^nd
1978 Jan-Mar	78	9	11.5%	64^th
1978 Apr-Jun	114	12	10.5%	64^th
1978 Jul-Sep	234	44	18.8%	76^th
1978 Oct-Oct	83	24	28.9%	83^rd

Primary Sources

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

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
Biographical Directory of the United States Congress for the photo
THOMAS, for sponsored bills

Recent Legislative Activity

Elections and Offices

Sen. John Sparkman [D-AL, 1961-1978] leaves office as Senator from Alabama

Oct 15, 1978

Elections and Offices

Sen. John Sparkman [D-AL, 1961-1978] takes office as Senator from Alabama

Jan 03, 1961

Elections and Offices

Sen. John Sparkman [D-AL, 1961-1978] leaves office as Senator from Alabama

Sep 01, 1960

Elections and Offices

Sen. John Sparkman [D-AL, 1961-1978] leaves office as Representative for Alabama

Jan 02, 1951

Elections and Offices

Sen. John Sparkman [D-AL, 1961-1978] takes office as Senator from Alabama

Jan 03, 1949