John Moakley, former Representative for Massachusetts's 9th Congressional District

Moakley was the representative for Massachusetts’s 9^th congressional district and was most recently a Democrat (1975-2001) and previously an Ind. Democrat (1973-1974). He served from 1973 to 2001.

Photo of Rep. John Moakley [D-MA9, 1973-2001]

Analysis

Ideology–Leadership Chart

Moakley is shown as a purple triangle ▲ in our ideology-leadership chart below. Each dot was a member of the House of Representatives in 2002 positioned according to our liberal–conservative ideology score (left to right) and our leadership score (leaders are toward the top).

The chart is based on the bills Moakley sponsored and cosponsored from Jan 7, 1997 to Nov 19, 2002. See full analysis methodology.

Enacted Legislation

Moakley was the primary sponsor of 9 bills that were enacted. The most recent include:

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Does 9 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

Moakley sponsored bills primarily in these issue areas:

Government Operations and Politics (18%) Law (18%) Commerce (15%) Education (12%) Foreign Trade and International Finance (12%) Armed Forces and National Security (9%) Labor and Employment (9%) Health (6%)

Recent Bills

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

View All » | View Cosponsors »

Voting Record

Missed Votes

From Jan 1973 to May 2001, Moakley missed 1,554 of 15,562 roll call votes, which is 10.0%. This is much worse than the median of 2.8% among the lifetime records of representatives serving in May 2001. The chart below reports missed votes over time.

We don’t track why legislators miss votes, but it’s often due to medical absenses and major life events.

Show the numbers...

Time Period	Votes Eligible	Missed Votes	Percent	Percentile
1973 Jan-Mar	36	0	0.0%	0^th
1973 Apr-Jun	191	4	2.1%	16^th
1973 Jul-Sep	131	2	1.5%	37^th
1973 Oct-Dec	182	8	4.4%	42^nd
1974 Jan-Mar	79	12	15.2%	79^th
1974 Apr-Jun	170	20	11.8%	68^th
1974 Jul-Sep	148	0	0.0%	0^th
1974 Oct-Dec	141	22	15.6%	84^th
1975 Jan-Mar	68	2	2.9%	31^st
1975 Apr-Jun	199	3	1.5%	17^th
1975 Jul-Sep	154	8	5.2%	48^th
1975 Oct-Dec	191	5	2.6%	28^th
1976 Jan-Mar	106	5	4.7%	38^th
1976 Apr-Jun	267	21	7.9%	43^rd
1976 Jul-Sep	281	18	6.4%	53^rd
1976 Oct-Oct	7	0	0.0%	0^th
1977 Jan-Mar	100	2	2.0%	28^th
1977 Apr-Jun	273	20	7.3%	46^th
1977 Jul-Sep	198	7	3.5%	36^th
1977 Oct-Dec	135	16	11.9%	77^th
1978 Jan-Mar	150	10	6.7%	44^th
1978 Apr-Jun	300	19	6.3%	46^th
1978 Jul-Sep	308	30	9.7%	59^th
1978 Oct-Oct	76	2	2.6%	28^th
1979 Jan-Mar	63	0	0.0%	0^th
1979 Apr-Jun	221	6	2.7%	25^th
1979 Jul-Sep	198	20	10.1%	75^th
1979 Oct-Dec	190	22	11.6%	66^th
1980 Jan-Mar	148	6	4.1%	21^st
1980 Apr-Jun	197	23	11.7%	70^th
1980 Jul-Sep	192	19	9.9%	67^th
1980 Oct-Dec	67	5	7.5%	43^rd
1981 Jan-Mar	15	0	0.0%	0^th
1981 Apr-Jun	90	6	6.7%	53^rd
1981 Jul-Sep	106	8	7.5%	67^th
1981 Oct-Dec	142	24	16.9%	89^th
1982 Feb-Mar	48	8	16.7%	84^th
1982 Apr-Jun	119	5	4.2%	48^th
1982 Jul-Sep	193	15	7.8%	68^th
1982 Oct-Dec	99	9	9.1%	53^rd
1983 Jan-Mar	43	2	4.7%	27^th
1983 Apr-Jun	182	6	3.3%	27^th
1983 Jul-Sep	130	11	8.5%	80^th
1983 Oct-Nov	143	15	10.5%	80^th
1984 Jan-Mar	53	10	18.9%	86^th
1984 Apr-Jun	223	13	5.8%	47^th
1984 Jul-Sep	96	6	6.2%	60^th
1984 Oct-Oct	36	1	2.8%	28^th
1985 Jan-Mar	36	20	55.6%	99^th
1985 Apr-Jun	154	15	9.7%	85^th
1985 Jul-Sep	101	11	10.9%	82^nd
1985 Oct-Dec	148	14	9.5%	91^st
1986 Jan-Mar	61	20	32.8%	97^th
1986 Apr-Jun	128	3	2.3%	40^th
1986 Jul-Sep	202	16	7.9%	77^th
1986 Oct-Oct	60	2	3.3%	54^th
1987 Jan-Mar	39	10	25.6%	94^th
1987 Apr-Jun	187	8	4.3%	55^th
1987 Jul-Sep	95	0	0.0%	0^th
1987 Oct-Dec	167	10	6.0%	48^th
1988 Feb-Mar	49	0	0.0%	0^th
1988 Apr-Jun	161	3	1.9%	31^st
1988 Jul-Sep	152	5	3.3%	44^th
1988 Oct-Oct	89	0	0.0%	0^th
1989 Jan-Mar	14	0	0.0%	0^th
1989 Apr-Jun	105	1	1.0%	20^th
1989 Jul-Sep	128	2	1.6%	36^th
1989 Oct-Nov	121	16	13.2%	93^rd
1990 Jan-Mar	60	1	1.7%	38^th
1990 Apr-Jun	150	5	3.3%	59^th
1990 Jul-Sep	183	2	1.1%	29^th
1990 Oct-Oct	143	1	0.7%	23^rd
1991 Jan-Mar	62	2	3.2%	53^rd
1991 Apr-Jun	139	7	5.0%	71^st
1991 Jul-Sep	81	2	2.5%	37^th
1991 Oct-Nov	162	1	0.6%	19^th
1992 Jan-Mar	66	5	7.6%	73^rd
1992 Apr-Jun	185	33	17.8%	96^th
1992 Jul-Sep	196	3	1.5%	40^th
1992 Oct-Oct	41	0	0.0%	0^th
1993 Jan-Mar	127	0	0.0%	0^th
1993 Apr-Jun	190	22	11.6%	90^th
1993 Jul-Sep	164	53	32.3%	99^th
1993 Oct-Nov	134	21	15.7%	98^th
1994 Jan-Mar	95	2	2.1%	39^th
1994 Apr-Jun	219	6	2.7%	61^st
1994 Jul-Sep	142	0	0.0%	0^th
1994 Oct-Nov	51	3	5.9%	80^th
1995 Jan-Mar	279	30	10.8%	96^th
1995 Apr-Jun	189	112	59.3%	100^th
1995 Jul-Sep	232	225	97.0%	100^th
1995 Oct-Dec	185	40	21.6%	99^th
1996 Jan-Mar	110	37	33.6%	99^th
1996 Apr-Jun	182	10	5.5%	81^st
1996 Jul-Sep	163	0	0.0%	0^th
1997 Jan-Mar	71	1	1.4%	37^th
1997 Apr-Jun	174	3	1.7%	47^th
1997 Jul-Sep	232	5	2.2%	56^th
1997 Oct-Nov	163	13	8.0%	88^th
1998 Jan-Mar	89	6	6.7%	80^th
1998 Apr-Jun	185	19	10.3%	93^rd
1998 Jul-Sep	199	85	42.7%	100^th
1998 Oct-Dec	74	6	8.1%	84^th
1999 Jan-Mar	77	5	6.5%	85^th
1999 Apr-Jun	184	10	5.4%	83^rd
1999 Jul-Sep	204	9	4.4%	80^th
1999 Oct-Nov	146	11	7.5%	84^th
2000 Jan-Mar	95	7	7.4%	79^th
2000 Apr-Jun	277	23	8.3%	89^th
2000 Jul-Sep	130	9	6.9%	84^th
2000 Oct-Dec	101	7	6.9%	49^th
2001 Jan-Mar	75	28	37.3%	99^th
2001 Apr-Jun	74	52	70.3%	100^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
Congressional Pictorial Directory for the photo
GovInfo.gov, for sponsored bills

Rep. John Moakley

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