Carl Pursell, former Representative for Michigan's 2nd Congressional District

Pursell was the representative for Michigan’s 2^nd congressional district and was a Republican. He served from 1977 to 1992.

Photo of Rep. Carl Pursell [R-MI2, 1977-1992]

Analysis

Ideology–Leadership Chart

Pursell is shown as a purple triangle ▲ in our ideology-leadership chart below. Each dot was a member of the House of Representatives in 1992 positioned according to our ideology score (left to right) and our leadership score (leaders are toward the top).

The chart is based on the bills Pursell sponsored and cosponsored from Jan 6, 1987 to Oct 9, 1992. See full analysis methodology.

Enacted Legislation

Pursell was the primary sponsor of 1 bill that was enacted:

H.J.Res. 567 (98th): A joint resolution to designate 1984 as the “Year of the St. Lawrence Seaway” and June 27, 1984, as “St. Lawrence Seaway Day”.

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Does 1 not sound like a lot? Very few bills are ever enacted — most legislators sponsor only a handful that are signed into law. But there are other legislative activities that we don’t track that are also important, including offering amendments, committee work and oversight of the other branches, and constituent services.

We consider a bill enacted if one of the following is true: a) it is enacted itself, b) it has a companion bill in the other chamber (as identified by Congress) which was enacted, or c) if at least about half of its provisions were incorporated into bills that were enacted (as determined by an automated text analysis, applicable beginning with bills in the 110^th Congress).

Bills Sponsored

Issue Areas

Pursell sponsored bills primarily in these issue areas:

Health (46%) Education (23%) International Affairs (15%) Commerce (15%)

Recently Introduced Bills

Pursell recently introduced the following legislation:

View All » | View Cosponsors »

Most legislation has no activity after being introduced.

Voting Record

Missed Votes

From Jan 1977 to Oct 1992, Pursell missed 1,024 of 8,199 roll call votes, which is 12.5%. This is much worse than the median of 4.4% among the lifetime records of representatives serving in Oct 1992. 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.

Show the numbers...

Time Period	Votes Eligible	Missed Votes	Percent	Percentile
1977 Jan-Mar	100	18	18.0%	88^th
1977 Apr-Jun	273	36	13.2%	83^rd
1977 Jul-Sep	198	33	16.7%	89^th
1977 Oct-Dec	135	30	22.2%	96^th
1978 Jan-Mar	150	24	16.0%	84^th
1978 Apr-Jun	300	61	20.3%	84^th
1978 Jul-Sep	308	42	13.6%	74^th
1978 Oct-Oct	76	5	6.6%	57^th
1979 Jan-Mar	63	22	34.9%	96^th
1979 Apr-Jun	221	25	11.3%	77^th
1979 Jul-Sep	198	27	13.6%	82^nd
1979 Oct-Dec	190	22	11.6%	60^th
1980 Jan-Mar	148	33	22.3%	91^st
1980 Apr-Jun	197	28	14.2%	79^th
1980 Jul-Sep	192	25	13.0%	75^th
1980 Oct-Dec	67	17	25.4%	84^th
1981 Jan-Mar	15	4	26.7%	91^st
1981 Apr-Jun	90	17	18.9%	90^th
1981 Jul-Sep	106	7	6.6%	63^rd
1981 Oct-Dec	142	13	9.2%	64^th
1982 Feb-Mar	48	25	52.1%	98^th
1982 Apr-Jun	119	13	10.9%	81^st
1982 Jul-Sep	193	45	23.3%	96^th
1982 Oct-Dec	99	43	43.4%	97^th
1983 Jan-Mar	43	13	30.2%	98^th
1983 Apr-Jun	182	31	17.0%	91^st
1983 Jul-Sep	130	6	4.6%	60^th
1983 Oct-Nov	143	12	8.4%	67^th
1984 Jan-Mar	53	12	22.6%	91^st
1984 Apr-Jun	223	23	10.3%	72^nd
1984 Jul-Sep	96	10	10.4%	80^th
1984 Oct-Oct	36	16	44.4%	97^th
1985 Jan-Mar	36	6	16.7%	84^th
1985 Apr-Jun	154	7	4.5%	48^th
1985 Jul-Sep	101	16	15.8%	95^th
1985 Oct-Dec	148	10	6.8%	71^st
1986 Jan-Mar	61	6	9.8%	62^nd
1986 Apr-Jun	128	3	2.3%	37^th
1986 Jul-Sep	202	6	3.0%	46^th
1986 Oct-Oct	60	2	3.3%	47^th
1987 Jan-Mar	39	0	0.0%	0^th
1987 Apr-Jun	187	22	11.8%	88^th
1987 Jul-Sep	95	5	5.3%	65^th
1987 Oct-Dec	167	21	12.6%	86^th
1988 Feb-Mar	49	4	8.2%	67^th
1988 Apr-Jun	161	11	6.8%	68^th
1988 Jul-Sep	152	5	3.3%	39^th
1988 Oct-Oct	89	0	0.0%	0^th
1989 Jan-Mar	14	0	0.0%	0^th
1989 Apr-Jun	105	5	4.8%	62^nd
1989 Jul-Sep	128	8	6.2%	80^th
1989 Oct-Nov	121	9	7.4%	72^nd
1990 Jan-Mar	60	3	5.0%	67^th
1990 Apr-Jun	150	17	11.3%	89^th
1990 Jul-Sep	183	17	9.3%	89^th
1990 Oct-Oct	143	19	13.3%	93^rd
1991 Jan-Mar	62	4	6.5%	75^th
1991 Apr-Jun	139	13	9.4%	86^th
1991 Jul-Sep	81	12	14.8%	89^th
1991 Oct-Nov	162	5	3.1%	56^th
1992 Jan-Mar	66	9	13.6%	88^th
1992 Apr-Jun	185	20	10.8%	81^st
1992 Jul-Sep	196	15	7.7%	74^th
1992 Oct-Oct	41	6	14.6%	83^rd

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
The House and Senate websites, for committee membership and voting records
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
GovInfo.gov, for sponsored bills

Rep. Carl Pursell

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