Rep. Bonnie Watson Coleman’s 2017 Report Card
Representative
from New Jersey's 12th District
Democrat
Serving Jan 6, 2015 – Jan 3, 2025
These year-end statistics cover Watson Coleman’s record during the 2017 legislative year (Jan 3, 2017-Dec 31, 2017) and compare her to other representatives serving at the end of that period. Last updated on Jan 6, 2018.
A higher or lower number below doesn’t necessarily make this legislator any better or worse, or more or less effective, than other Members of Congress. We present these statistics for you to understand the quantitative aspects of Watson Coleman’s legislative career and make your own judgements based on what activities you think are important.
Keep in mind that there are many important aspects of being a legislator besides what can be measured, such as constituent services and performing oversight of the executive branch, which aren’t reflected here.
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Ranked most politically left compared to New Jersey DelegationOur unique ideology analysis assigns a score to Members of Congress according to their legislative behavior by how similar the pattern of bills and resolutions they cosponsor are to other Members of Congress. For more, see our methodology. Note that because on this page only legislative activity in 2017 is considered, the ideology score here may differ from Watson Coleman’s score elsewhere on GovTrack. Compare to all New Jersey Delegation (0th percentile); House Sophomores (2nd percentile); House Democrats (8th percentile); All Representatives (3rd percentile). |
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Joined bipartisan bills the 2nd least often compared to New Jersey DelegationOf the 330 bills that Watson Coleman cosponsored, 19% were introduced by a legislator who was not a Democrat. View Cosponsored Bills » Compare to all New Jersey Delegation (8th percentile); House Sophomores (58th percentile); House Democrats (9th percentile); All Representatives (47th percentile). Only Democratic and Republican Members of Congress who cosponsored more than 10 bills and resolutions are included in this statistic. |
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Got the 3rd most cosponsors on their bills compared to New Jersey DelegationWatson Coleman’s bills and resolutions had 187 cosponsors in 2017. Securing cosponsors is an important part of getting support for a bill, although having more cosponsors does not always mean a bill will get a vote. View Bills » Compare to all New Jersey Delegation (75th percentile); House Sophomores (74th percentile); House Democrats (55th percentile); All Representatives (62nd percentile). |
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Got bipartisan cosponsors on the 4th fewest bills compared to New Jersey Delegation (tied with 1 other)In this era of partisanship, it is important to see Members of Congress working across the aisle. 2 of Watson Coleman’s 11 bills and resolutions had both a Democratic cosponsor and a Republican cosponsor in 2017. Compare to all New Jersey Delegation (25th percentile); House Sophomores (13th percentile); House Democrats (19th percentile); All Representatives (18th percentile). |
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Cosponsored the 5th most bills compared to House SophomoresWatson Coleman cosponsored 330 bills and resolutions introduced by other Members of Congress. Cosponsorship shows a willingness to work with others to advance policy goals. View Cosponsored Bills » Compare to all New Jersey Delegation (92nd percentile); House Sophomores (92nd percentile); House Democrats (75th percentile); All Representatives (89th percentile). |
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Held the 4th fewest committee positions compared to New Jersey Delegation (tied with 4 others)Watson Coleman held a leadership position on 0 committees and 1 subcommittee, as either a chair (majority party) or ranking member (minority party), at the end of the session. For comparison to other Members of Congress, we assigned a score giving five points for each full committee leadership position and one point for each subcommittee leadership position. View Watson Coleman’s Profile » Compare to all New Jersey Delegation (25th percentile); House Sophomores (45th percentile); House Democrats (40th percentile); All Representatives (39th percentile). |
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Got their bills out of committee the 6th most often compared to House Democrats (tied with 6 others)Most bills and resolutions languish in committee without any action. Watson Coleman introduced 4 bills in 2017 that got past committee and to the floor for consideration. Those bills were: H.Res. 447: Directing the Secretary of Homeland …; H.R. 347: DHS Acquisition Documentation Integrity Act …; H.R. 1297: Quadrennial Homeland Security Review Technical …; H.R. 2302: To designate the facility of … Compare to all New Jersey Delegation (75th percentile); House Sophomores (74th percentile); House Democrats (94th percentile); All Representatives (82nd percentile). |
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Got influential cosponsors the 58th most often compared to All Representatives (tied with 47 others)4 of Watson Coleman’s bills and resolutions in 2017 had a cosponsor who was a chair or ranking member of a committee that the bill was referred to. Getting support from committee leaders on relevant committees is a crucial step in moving legislation forward. Those bills were: H.Res. 447: Directing the Secretary of Homeland …; H.R. 347: DHS Acquisition Documentation Integrity Act …; H.R. 3520: Customer Non-Discrimination Act; H.R. 4474: Surface Transportation and Public Area … Compare to all New Jersey Delegation (67th percentile); House Sophomores (74th percentile); House Democrats (72nd percentile); All Representatives (76th percentile). |
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Laws EnactedWatson Coleman introduced 0 bills that became law, including via incorporation into other measures, in 2017. Keep in mind that it takes a law to repeal a law. Very few bills ever become law. Compare to all New Jersey Delegation (0th percentile); House Sophomores (0th percentile); House Democrats (0th percentile); All Representatives (0th percentile). The legislator must be the primary sponsor of the bill or joint resolution that was enacted or the primary sponsor of a bill or joint resolution for which at least about one third of its text was incorporated into another bill or joint resolution that was enacted as law, as determined by an automated analysis. While a legislator may lay claim to authoring other bills that became law, these cases are difficult for us to track quantitatively. We also exclude bills where the sponsor’s original intent is not in the final bill. |
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Bills IntroducedWatson Coleman introduced 11 bills and resolutions in 2017. View Bills » Compare to all New Jersey Delegation (33rd percentile); House Sophomores (56th percentile); House Democrats (45th percentile); All Representatives (47th percentile). |
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Working with the SenateThe House and Senate often work on the same issue simultaneously by introducing Compare to all New Jersey Delegation (0th percentile); House Sophomores (0th percentile); House Democrats (0th percentile); All Representatives (0th percentile). Companion bills are those that are identified as “identical” by Congress’s Congressional Research Service. |
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Leadership ScoreOur unique leadership analysis looks at who is cosponsoring whose bills. A higher score shows a greater ability to get cosponsors on bills. For more, see our methodology. Note that because on this page only legislative activity in 2017 is considered, the leadership score here may differ from Watson Coleman’s score elsewhere on GovTrack. Compare to all New Jersey Delegation (67th percentile); House Sophomores (45th percentile); House Democrats (49th percentile); All Representatives (43rd percentile). |
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Missed VotesWatson Coleman missed 1.1% of votes (8 of 710 votes) in 2017. View Watson Coleman’s Profile » Compare to all New Jersey Delegation (58th percentile); House Sophomores (48th percentile); All Representatives (34th percentile). The Speaker of the House, per current House rules, is not required to vote in “ordinary legislative proceedings” and is never recorded as missing a vote, and may not be included in the comparison with other representatives if not voting. The delegates from the five island territories and the District of Columbia are not eligible to vote in most roll call votes and so may not appear here if not elligible for any vote during the time period of these statistics. |
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Government TransparencyGovTrack looked at whether Watson Coleman supported any of 21 government transparency, accountability, and effectiveness bills in the House that we identified in this session. We gave Watson Coleman 0 points, based on one point for cosponsoring and three points for sponsoring any of these bills. Compare to all New Jersey Delegation (0th percentile); House Sophomores (0th percentile); House Democrats (0th percentile); All Representatives (0th percentile). |
Additional Notes
Leadership/Ideology: The leadership and ideology scores are not displayed for Members of Congress who introduced fewer than 10 bills, or, for ideology, for Members of Congress that have a low leadership score, as there is usually not enough data in these cases to compute reliable leadership and ideology statistics.
Missing Bills: We exclude bills from some statistics where the sponsor’s original intent is not in the final bill because the bill’s text was replaced in whole with unrelated provisions (i.e. it became a vehicle for passage of unrelated provisions).
Ranking Members (RkMembs): The chair of a committee is always selected from the political party that holds the most seats in the chamber, called the “majority party”. The “ranking member” (sometimes “RkMembs”) is the title given to the senior-most member of the committee not in the majority party.
Freshmen/Sophomores: Freshmen and sophomores are Members of Congress whose first term (in the same chamber at the end of 2017) was the 115th Congress (freshmen) or 114th (sophomores). Members of Congress who took office within the last few months of a Congress are considered freshmen in the next Congress as well.
