Christopher Shays, former Representative for Connecticut's 4th Congressional District

Analysis

Our unique analysis of the bills Shays sponsored and cosponsored provides insight into his position in the House of Representatives.

Each dot in the chart below was a member of the House of Representatives in 2008. The dots are positioned horizontally according to our progressive—conservative ideology score and vertically according to our leadership score (leaders toward the top). Shays is shown as a purple triangle. (analysis methodology)

Bills Sponsored

Issue Areas

Shays sponsored bills primarily in these issue areas:

Government Operations and Politics (24%) Law (13%) Armed Forces and National Security (13%) Economics and Public Finance (12%) Science, Technology, Communications (12%) Labor and Employment (10%) Crime and Law Enforcement (9%) International Affairs (8%)

Recent Bills

Some of Shays’s most recently sponsored bills include...

View All » (including bills from previous years)

Voting Record

See how presidential campaigns affect voting records.

From Sep 1987 to Dec 2008, Shays missed 287 of 12,648 roll call votes, which is 2.3%. This is on par with the median of 3.1% among the lifetime records of representatives serving in Dec 2008. ProPublica has tracked 75 explanations for these missed votes. The chart below reports missed votes over time.

Show the numbers...

Time Period	Votes Eligible	Missed Votes	Percent	Percentile
1987 Jul-Sep	24	0	0.0%	0^th
1987 Oct-Dec	167	0	0.0%	0^th
1988 Feb-Mar	49	0	0.0%	0^th
1988 Apr-Jun	161	0	0.0%	0^th
1988 Jul-Sep	152	0	0.0%	0^th
1988 Oct-Oct	89	0	0.0%	0^th
1989 Jan-Mar	14	0	0.0%	0^th
1989 Apr-Jun	105	0	0.0%	0^th
1989 Jul-Sep	128	0	0.0%	0^th
1989 Oct-Nov	121	0	0.0%	0^th
1990 Jan-Mar	60	0	0.0%	0^th
1990 Apr-Jun	150	0	0.0%	0^th
1990 Jul-Sep	183	0	0.0%	0^th
1990 Oct-Oct	143	0	0.0%	0^th
1991 Jan-Mar	62	0	0.0%	0^th
1991 Apr-Jun	139	0	0.0%	0^th
1991 Jul-Sep	81	0	0.0%	0^th
1991 Oct-Nov	162	0	0.0%	0^th
1992 Jan-Mar	66	0	0.0%	0^th
1992 Apr-Jun	185	0	0.0%	0^th
1992 Jul-Sep	196	0	0.0%	0^th
1992 Oct-Oct	41	0	0.0%	0^th
1993 Jan-Mar	127	0	0.0%	0^th
1993 Apr-Jun	190	0	0.0%	0^th
1993 Jul-Sep	164	0	0.0%	0^th
1993 Oct-Nov	134	0	0.0%	0^th
1994 Jan-Mar	95	0	0.0%	0^th
1994 Apr-Jun	219	0	0.0%	0^th
1994 Jul-Sep	142	0	0.0%	0^th
1994 Oct-Nov	51	0	0.0%	0^th
1995 Jan-Mar	279	0	0.0%	0^th
1995 Apr-Jun	189	0	0.0%	0^th
1995 Jul-Sep	232	0	0.0%	0^th
1995 Oct-Dec	185	0	0.0%	0^th
1996 Jan-Mar	110	0	0.0%	0^th
1996 Apr-Jun	182	0	0.0%	0^th
1996 Jul-Sep	163	0	0.0%	0^th
1997 Jan-Mar	71	0	0.0%	0^th
1997 Apr-Jun	174	0	0.0%	0^th
1997 Jul-Sep	232	0	0.0%	0^th
1997 Oct-Nov	163	1	0.6%	15^th
1998 Jan-Mar	89	0	0.0%	0^th
1998 Apr-Jun	185	3	1.6%	44^th
1998 Jul-Sep	199	0	0.0%	0^th
1998 Oct-Dec	74	0	0.0%	0^th
1999 Jan-Mar	77	0	0.0%	0^th
1999 Apr-Jun	184	8	4.3%	76^th
1999 Jul-Sep	204	0	0.0%	0^th
1999 Oct-Nov	146	1	0.7%	20^th
2000 Jan-Mar	95	1	1.1%	23^rd
2000 Apr-Jun	277	4	1.4%	34^th
2000 Jul-Sep	130	6	4.6%	72^nd
2000 Oct-Dec	101	40	39.6%	97^th
2001 Jan-Mar	75	4	5.3%	76^th
2001 Apr-Jun	135	0	0.0%	0^th
2001 Jul-Sep	149	1	0.7%	23^rd
2001 Oct-Dec	153	3	2.0%	45^th
2002 Jan-Mar	79	4	5.1%	70^th
2002 Apr-Jun	203	11	5.4%	76^th
2002 Jul-Sep	141	3	2.1%	42^nd
2002 Oct-Nov	61	0	0.0%	0^th
2003 Jan-Mar	94	0	0.0%	0^th
2003 Apr-Jun	239	4	1.7%	42^nd
2003 Jul-Sep	193	4	2.1%	50^th
2003 Oct-Dec	151	2	1.3%	29^th
2004 Jan-Mar	104	2	1.9%	31^st
2004 Apr-Jun	221	13	5.9%	77^th
2004 Jul-Sep	161	7	4.3%	61^st
2004 Oct-Dec	58	3	5.2%	62^nd
2005 Jan-Mar	90	7	7.8%	81^st
2005 Apr-Jun	272	21	7.7%	87^th
2005 Jul-Sep	146	6	4.1%	70^th
2005 Oct-Dec	163	2	1.2%	29^th
2006 Jan-Mar	81	6	7.4%	85^th
2006 Apr-Jun	276	19	6.9%	88^th
2006 Jul-Sep	159	3	1.9%	47^th
2006 Nov-Dec	27	1	3.7%	51^st
2007 Jan-Mar	213	3	1.4%	41^st
2007 Apr-Jun	393	49	12.5%	93^rd
2007 Jul-Sep	317	8	2.5%	55^th
2007 Oct-Dec	263	7	2.7%	45^th
2008 Jan-Mar	149	3	2.0%	26^th
2008 Apr-Jun	321	17	5.3%	65^th
2008 Jul-Sep	205	6	2.9%	52^nd
2008 Oct-Dec	15	4	26.7%	92^nd

Primary Sources

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

The House and Senate websites, for committee membership and voting records
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
Congressional Pictorial Directory for the photo
GPO.gov/FDSys, for sponsored bills

Rep. Christopher Shays

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