Leslie Aspin, former Representative for Wisconsin's 1st Congressional District

Aspin was the representative for Wisconsin’s 1^st congressional district and was a Democrat. He served from 1971 to 1993.

Analysis

Ideology–Leadership Chart

Aspin 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 Aspin sponsored and cosponsored from Jan 6, 1987 to Oct 9, 1992. See full analysis methodology.

Enacted Legislation

Aspin was the primary sponsor of 14 bills that were enacted. The most recent include:

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Does 14 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

Aspin sponsored bills primarily in these issue areas:

Armed Forces and National Security (28%) Environmental Protection (15%) Government Operations and Politics (13%) International Affairs (13%) Health (8%) Economics and Public Finance (8%) Sports and Recreation (8%) Crime and Law Enforcement (8%)

Recently Introduced Bills

Aspin recently introduced the following legislation:

View All » | View Cosponsors »

Most legislation has no activity after being introduced.

Voting Record

Missed Votes

From Jan 1971 to Oct 1992, Aspin missed 1,217 of 11,199 roll call votes, which is 10.9%. 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
1971 Jan-Mar	22	2	9.1%	47^th
1971 Apr-Jun	90	13	14.4%	55^th
1971 Jul-Sep	74	2	2.7%	24^th
1971 Oct-Dec	134	14	10.4%	48^th
1972 Jan-Mar	64	6	9.4%	52^nd
1972 Apr-Jun	114	6	5.3%	27^th
1972 Jul-Sep	101	5	5.0%	24^th
1972 Oct-Oct	50	17	34.0%	84^th
1973 Jan-Mar	36	8	22.2%	80^th
1973 Apr-Jun	191	28	14.7%	83^rd
1973 Jul-Sep	131	3	2.3%	30^th
1973 Oct-Dec	182	51	28.0%	92^nd
1974 Jan-Mar	79	3	3.8%	26^th
1974 Apr-Jun	170	23	13.5%	67^th
1974 Jul-Sep	148	28	18.9%	91^st
1974 Oct-Dec	141	13	9.2%	51^st
1975 Jan-Mar	68	13	19.1%	89^th
1975 Apr-Jun	199	8	4.0%	41^st
1975 Jul-Sep	154	30	19.5%	93^rd
1975 Oct-Dec	191	6	3.1%	32^nd
1976 Jan-Mar	106	20	18.9%	89^th
1976 Apr-Jun	267	24	9.0%	57^th
1976 Jul-Sep	281	34	12.1%	74^th
1976 Oct-Oct	7	0	0.0%	0^th
1977 Jan-Mar	100	4	4.0%	40^th
1977 Apr-Jun	273	73	26.7%	99^th
1977 Jul-Sep	198	16	8.1%	64^th
1977 Oct-Dec	135	5	3.7%	35^th
1978 Jan-Mar	150	10	6.7%	44^th
1978 Apr-Jun	300	38	12.7%	71^st
1978 Jul-Sep	308	14	4.5%	34^th
1978 Oct-Oct	76	11	14.5%	84^th
1979 Jan-Mar	63	1	1.6%	31^st
1979 Apr-Jun	221	12	5.4%	42^nd
1979 Jul-Sep	198	8	4.0%	35^th
1979 Oct-Dec	190	28	14.7%	74^th
1980 Jan-Mar	148	23	15.5%	78^th
1980 Apr-Jun	197	23	11.7%	68^th
1980 Jul-Sep	192	13	6.8%	46^th
1980 Oct-Dec	67	4	6.0%	38^th
1981 Jan-Mar	15	1	6.7%	46^th
1981 Apr-Jun	90	10	11.1%	72^nd
1981 Jul-Sep	106	6	5.7%	58^th
1981 Oct-Dec	142	20	14.1%	80^th
1982 Feb-Mar	48	1	2.1%	27^th
1982 Apr-Jun	119	6	5.0%	56^th
1982 Jul-Sep	193	14	7.3%	60^th
1982 Oct-Dec	99	17	17.2%	79^th
1983 Jan-Mar	43	8	18.6%	86^th
1983 Apr-Jun	182	17	9.3%	65^th
1983 Jul-Sep	130	16	12.3%	93^rd
1983 Oct-Nov	143	11	7.7%	63^rd
1984 Jan-Mar	53	4	7.5%	57^th
1984 Apr-Jun	223	21	9.4%	68^th
1984 Jul-Sep	96	7	7.3%	67^th
1984 Oct-Oct	36	14	38.9%	97^th
1985 Jan-Mar	36	4	11.1%	66^th
1985 Apr-Jun	154	9	5.8%	60^th
1985 Jul-Sep	101	16	15.8%	95^th
1985 Oct-Dec	148	16	10.8%	90^th
1986 Jan-Mar	61	4	6.6%	50^th
1986 Apr-Jun	128	8	6.2%	72^nd
1986 Jul-Sep	202	23	11.4%	91^st
1986 Oct-Oct	60	7	11.7%	81^st
1987 Jan-Mar	39	1	2.6%	36^th
1987 Apr-Jun	187	34	18.2%	94^th
1987 Jul-Sep	95	14	14.7%	91^st
1987 Oct-Dec	167	27	16.2%	93^rd
1988 Feb-Mar	49	5	10.2%	74^th
1988 Apr-Jun	161	15	9.3%	80^th
1988 Jul-Sep	152	26	17.1%	92^nd
1988 Oct-Oct	89	17	19.1%	93^rd
1989 Jan-Mar	14	1	7.1%	55^th
1989 Apr-Jun	105	15	14.3%	94^th
1989 Jul-Sep	128	14	10.9%	95^th
1989 Oct-Nov	121	33	27.3%	99^th
1990 Jan-Mar	60	6	10.0%	85^th
1990 Apr-Jun	150	7	4.7%	64^th
1990 Jul-Sep	183	13	7.1%	82^nd
1990 Oct-Oct	143	25	17.5%	97^th
1991 Jan-Mar	62	6	9.7%	86^th
1991 Apr-Jun	139	18	12.9%	93^rd
1991 Jul-Sep	81	1	1.2%	12^th
1991 Oct-Nov	162	11	6.8%	80^th
1992 Jan-Mar	66	8	12.1%	85^th
1992 Apr-Jun	185	3	1.6%	25^th
1992 Jul-Sep	196	13	6.6%	69^th
1992 Oct-Oct	41	4	9.8%	73^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
GovInfo.gov, for sponsored bills

Rep. Leslie Aspin

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