Rep. Gillespie “Sonny” Montgomery

Former Representative for Mississippi’s 3^rd District

Montgomery was the representative for Mississippi’s 3^rd congressional district and was a Democrat. He served from 1973 to 1996.

He was previously the representative for Mississippi’s 4^th congressional district as a Democrat from 1967 to 1972.

Bioguide

Photo of Rep. Gillespie “Sonny” Montgomery [D-MS3, 1973-1996]

(About Ads | Hide These Ads)

Analysis

Ideology–Leadership Chart

Montgomery is shown as a purple triangle ▲ in our ideology-leadership chart below. Each dot was a member of the House of Representatives in 1996 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 Montgomery sponsored and cosponsored from Jan 3, 1991 to Oct 3, 1996. See full analysis methodology.

Enacted Legislation

Montgomery was the primary sponsor of 47 bills that were enacted. The most recent include:

View All »

Does 47 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

Montgomery sponsored bills primarily in these issue areas:

Armed Forces and National Security (46%) Government Operations and Politics (13%) Health (12%) Education (9%) Labor and Employment (8%)

Recently Introduced Bills

Montgomery recently introduced the following legislation:

View All » | View Cosponsors »

Most legislation has no activity after being introduced.

Voting Record

Missed Votes

From Jan 1967 to Sep 1996, Montgomery missed 684 of 14,582 roll call votes, which is 4.7%. This is worse than the median of 2.7% among the lifetime records of representatives serving in Sep 1996. 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
1967 Jan-Mar	31	3	9.7%	94^th
1967 Apr-Jun	57	0	0.0%	0^th
1967 Jul-Sep	59	2	3.4%	61^st
1967 Oct-Dec	98	0	0.0%	0^th
1968 Jan-Mar	38	0	0.0%	0^th
1968 Apr-Jun	79	1	1.3%	33^rd
1968 Jul-Sep	91	0	0.0%	0^th
1968 Oct-Oct	25	3	12.0%	56^th
1969 Jan-Mar	16	0	0.0%	0^th
1969 Apr-Jun	28	2	7.1%	45^th
1969 Jul-Sep	45	2	4.4%	35^th
1969 Oct-Dec	88	14	15.9%	62^nd
1970 Jan-Mar	35	5	14.3%	48^th
1970 Apr-Jun	74	16	21.6%	62^nd
1970 Jul-Sep	76	9	11.8%	48^th
1970 Oct-Dec	81	27	33.3%	86^th
1971 Jan-Mar	22	5	22.7%	64^th
1971 Apr-Jun	90	3	3.3%	20^th
1971 Jul-Sep	74	18	24.3%	84^th
1971 Oct-Dec	134	33	24.6%	80^th
1972 Jan-Mar	64	5	7.8%	32^nd
1972 Apr-Jun	114	11	9.6%	40^th
1972 Jul-Sep	101	3	3.0%	12^th
1972 Oct-Oct	50	4	8.0%	35^th
1973 Jan-Mar	36	0	0.0%	0^th
1973 Apr-Jun	191	11	5.8%	43^rd
1973 Jul-Sep	131	1	0.8%	17^th
1973 Oct-Dec	182	2	1.1%	17^th
1974 Jan-Mar	79	12	15.2%	76^th
1974 Apr-Jun	170	5	2.9%	14^th
1974 Jul-Sep	148	20	13.5%	79^th
1974 Oct-Dec	141	11	7.8%	50^th
1975 Jan-Mar	68	0	0.0%	0^th
1975 Apr-Jun	199	6	3.0%	29^th
1975 Jul-Sep	154	27	17.5%	88^th
1975 Oct-Dec	191	14	7.3%	59^th
1976 Jan-Mar	106	9	8.5%	61^st
1976 Apr-Jun	267	9	3.4%	17^th
1976 Jul-Sep	281	8	2.8%	25^th
1976 Oct-Oct	7	0	0.0%	0^th
1977 Jan-Mar	100	21	21.0%	89^th
1977 Apr-Jun	273	9	3.3%	26^th
1977 Jul-Sep	198	10	5.1%	45^th
1977 Oct-Dec	135	14	10.4%	66^th
1978 Jan-Mar	150	5	3.3%	31^st
1978 Apr-Jun	300	23	7.7%	45^th
1978 Jul-Sep	308	22	7.1%	46^th
1978 Oct-Oct	76	7	9.2%	65^th
1979 Jan-Mar	63	4	6.3%	63^rd
1979 Apr-Jun	221	12	5.4%	37^th
1979 Jul-Sep	198	8	4.0%	41^st
1979 Oct-Dec	190	17	8.9%	48^th
1980 Jan-Mar	148	4	2.7%	12^th
1980 Apr-Jun	197	4	2.0%	18^th
1980 Jul-Sep	192	3	1.6%	11^th
1980 Oct-Dec	67	3	4.5%	26^th
1981 Jan-Mar	15	1	6.7%	42^nd
1981 Apr-Jun	90	6	6.7%	51^st
1981 Jul-Sep	106	5	4.7%	48^th
1981 Oct-Dec	142	13	9.2%	67^th
1982 Feb-Mar	48	2	4.2%	40^th
1982 Apr-Jun	119	4	3.4%	44^th
1982 Jul-Sep	193	7	3.6%	32^nd
1982 Oct-Dec	99	9	9.1%	57^th
1983 Jan-Mar	43	0	0.0%	0^th
1983 Apr-Jun	182	7	3.8%	33^rd
1983 Jul-Sep	130	3	2.3%	36^th
1983 Oct-Nov	143	10	7.0%	63^rd
1984 Jan-Mar	53	2	3.8%	40^th
1984 Apr-Jun	223	12	5.4%	46^th
1984 Jul-Sep	96	0	0.0%	0^th
1984 Oct-Oct	36	6	16.7%	82^nd
1985 Jan-Mar	36	0	0.0%	0^th
1985 Apr-Jun	154	7	4.5%	48^th
1985 Jul-Sep	101	1	1.0%	22^nd
1985 Oct-Dec	148	2	1.4%	25^th
1986 Jan-Mar	61	2	3.3%	30^th
1986 Apr-Jun	128	1	0.8%	16^th
1986 Jul-Sep	202	5	2.5%	44^th
1986 Oct-Oct	60	3	5.0%	55^th
1987 Jan-Mar	39	4	10.3%	79^th
1987 Apr-Jun	187	0	0.0%	0^th
1987 Jul-Sep	95	0	0.0%	0^th
1987 Oct-Dec	167	18	10.8%	78^th
1988 Feb-Mar	49	2	4.1%	38^th
1988 Apr-Jun	161	0	0.0%	0^th
1988 Jul-Sep	152	3	2.0%	24^th
1988 Oct-Oct	89	1	1.1%	38^th
1989 Jan-Mar	14	0	0.0%	0^th
1989 Apr-Jun	105	0	0.0%	0^th
1989 Jul-Sep	128	4	3.1%	55^th
1989 Oct-Nov	121	0	0.0%	0^th
1990 Jan-Mar	60	1	1.7%	34^th
1990 Apr-Jun	150	1	0.7%	14^th
1990 Jul-Sep	183	6	3.3%	55^th
1990 Oct-Oct	143	8	5.6%	67^th
1991 Jan-Mar	62	0	0.0%	0^th
1991 Apr-Jun	139	1	0.7%	14^th
1991 Jul-Sep	81	2	2.5%	31^st
1991 Oct-Nov	162	5	3.1%	59^th
1992 Jan-Mar	66	0	0.0%	0^th
1992 Apr-Jun	185	1	0.5%	10^th
1992 Jul-Sep	196	3	1.5%	35^th
1992 Oct-Oct	41	0	0.0%	0^th
1993 Jan-Mar	127	0	0.0%	0^th
1993 Apr-Jun	190	2	1.1%	21^st
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	1	0.5%	17^th
1994 Jul-Sep	142	10	7.0%	81^st
1994 Oct-Nov	51	1	2.0%	47^th
1995 Jan-Mar	279	7	2.5%	70^th
1995 Apr-Jun	189	11	5.8%	82^nd
1995 Jul-Sep	232	3	1.3%	40^th
1995 Oct-Dec	185	1	0.5%	20^th
1996 Jan-Mar	110	6	5.5%	75^th
1996 Apr-Jun	182	4	2.2%	46^th
1996 Jul-Sep	163	3	1.8%	44^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
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