Rep. Charles Herbert Wilson

Former Representative for California’s 31^st District

Wilson was the representative for California’s 31^st congressional district and was a Democrat. He served from 1963 to 1980.

Bioguide

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Misconduct

On Apr. 24, 1980, the House Committee on Standards of Official Conduct investigated Wilson for accepting money from a person with direct interest in legislation; maintaining a person on payroll not performing duties commensurate with pay; personal use of campaign funds and recommended censure and denial of chairmanship, 10-2. On Jun. 3, 1980, Wilson was defeated in the primary. On Jun. 10, 1980, the House of Representatives agreed to an amendment deleting denial of chairmanship from sanction, 261-148; and censured Wilson by voice vote.

Apr. 24, 1980	House Committee on Standards of Official Conduct recommended censure and denial of chairmanship, 10-2
Jun. 3, 1980	Defeated in the primary.
Jun. 10, 1980	House of Representatives agreed to an amendment deleting denial of chairmanship from sanction, 261-148; and censured by voice vote

On Sep. 27, 1978, the House Committee on Standards of Official Conduct investigated Wilson for making a false statement on an answer to a Standards Committee questionnaire regarding the Korean Influence Investigation and recommended reprimand, 8-1. On Oct. 13, 1978, the House of Representatives reprimanded him, 329-41.

Sep. 27, 1978	House Committee on Standards of Official Conduct conducted inquiry and recommended reprimand, 8-1
Oct. 13, 1978	House of Representatives reprimanded, 329-41

Analysis

Ideology–Leadership Chart

Wilson is shown as a purple triangle ▲ in our ideology-leadership chart below. Each dot was a member of the House of Representatives in 1980 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 Wilson sponsored and cosponsored from Jan 14, 1975 to Dec 13, 1980. See full analysis methodology.

Enacted Legislation

Wilson was the primary sponsor of 5 bills that were enacted:

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Does 5 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

Wilson sponsored bills primarily in these issue areas:

Government Operations and Politics (36%) Health (12%) Social Welfare (11%) Labor and Employment (11%) Armed Forces and National Security (8%) Education (8%) Taxation (7%) Immigration (7%)

Recently Introduced Bills

Wilson recently introduced the following legislation:

View All » | View Cosponsors »

Most legislation has no activity after being introduced.

Voting Record

Missed Votes

From Jan 1963 to Dec 1980, Wilson missed 2,193 of 7,362 roll call votes, which is 29.8%. This is much worse than the median of 8.6% among the lifetime records of representatives serving in Dec 1980. 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
1963 Jan-Mar	9	1	11.1%	90^th
1963 Apr-Jun	31	1	3.2%	63^rd
1963 Jul-Sep	28	2	7.1%	93^rd
1963 Oct-Dec	50	1	2.0%	29^th
1964 Jan-Mar	26	1	3.8%	63^rd
1964 Apr-Jun	34	0	0.0%	0^th
1964 Jul-Sep	49	4	8.2%	86^th
1964 Oct-Oct	4	0	0.0%	0^th
1965 Jan-Mar	28	8	28.6%	99^th
1965 Apr-Jun	53	15	28.3%	94^th
1965 Jul-Sep	98	32	32.7%	97^th
1965 Oct-Oct	22	2	9.1%	39^th
1966 Jan-Mar	30	13	43.3%	98^th
1966 Apr-Jun	51	24	47.1%	96^th
1966 Jul-Sep	72	39	54.2%	96^th
1966 Oct-Oct	40	16	40.0%	70^th
1967 Jan-Mar	31	2	6.5%	82^nd
1967 Apr-Jun	57	6	10.5%	97^th
1967 Jul-Sep	59	5	8.5%	88^th
1967 Oct-Dec	98	5	5.1%	79^th
1968 Jan-Mar	38	3	7.9%	89^th
1968 Apr-Jun	79	6	7.6%	88^th
1968 Jul-Sep	91	4	4.4%	55^th
1968 Oct-Oct	25	7	28.0%	84^th
1969 Jan-Mar	16	1	6.2%	55^th
1969 Apr-Jun	28	8	28.6%	91^st
1969 Jul-Sep	45	13	28.9%	94^th
1969 Oct-Dec	88	22	25.0%	87^th
1970 Jan-Mar	35	17	48.6%	96^th
1970 Apr-Jun	74	38	51.4%	95^th
1970 Jul-Sep	76	37	48.7%	97^th
1970 Oct-Dec	81	30	37.0%	88^th
1971 Jan-Mar	22	4	18.2%	78^th
1971 Apr-Jun	90	26	28.9%	93^rd
1971 Jul-Sep	74	33	44.6%	98^th
1971 Oct-Dec	134	60	44.8%	97^th
1972 Jan-Mar	64	6	9.4%	47^th
1972 Apr-Jun	114	48	42.1%	93^rd
1972 Jul-Sep	101	14	13.9%	65^th
1972 Oct-Oct	50	2	4.0%	20^th
1973 Jan-Mar	36	4	11.1%	61^st
1973 Apr-Jun	191	16	8.4%	52^nd
1973 Jul-Sep	131	5	3.8%	39^th
1973 Oct-Dec	182	4	2.2%	20^th
1974 Jan-Mar	79	9	11.4%	65^th
1974 Apr-Jun	170	38	22.4%	89^th
1974 Jul-Sep	148	36	24.3%	94^th
1974 Oct-Dec	141	25	17.7%	79^th
1975 Jan-Mar	68	12	17.6%	86^th
1975 Apr-Jun	199	31	15.6%	86^th
1975 Jul-Sep	154	33	21.4%	95^th
1975 Oct-Dec	191	75	39.3%	99^th
1976 Jan-Mar	106	17	16.0%	85^th
1976 Apr-Jun	267	86	32.2%	96^th
1976 Jul-Sep	281	70	24.9%	93^rd
1976 Oct-Oct	7	7	100.0%	94^th
1977 Jan-Mar	100	19	19.0%	91^st
1977 Apr-Jun	273	51	18.7%	90^th
1977 Jul-Sep	198	26	13.1%	78^th
1977 Oct-Dec	135	32	23.7%	95^th
1978 Jan-Mar	150	53	35.3%	98^th
1978 Apr-Jun	300	148	49.3%	99^th
1978 Jul-Sep	308	100	32.5%	96^th
1978 Oct-Oct	76	40	52.6%	97^th
1979 Jan-Mar	63	10	15.9%	78^th
1979 Apr-Jun	221	76	34.4%	97^th
1979 Jul-Sep	198	76	38.4%	97^th
1979 Oct-Dec	190	97	51.1%	98^th
1980 Jan-Mar	148	82	55.4%	98^th
1980 Apr-Jun	197	148	75.1%	100^th
1980 Jul-Sep	192	157	81.8%	99^th
1980 Oct-Dec	67	54	80.6%	98^th

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
GovInfo.gov, for sponsored bills