Reynolds was the representative for Illinois’s 2nd congressional district and was a Democrat. He served from 1993 to 1995.
Misconduct
On Jun. 28, 1995, the House Committee on Standards of Official Conduct investigated Reynolds for misuse of congressional staff for personal purposes, misuse of official resources, failure to repay personal debts and obstruction of justice. He was later convicted in state court of criminal sexual assault, aggravated sexual abuse, solicitation of child pornography and obstruction of justice on Aug. 22, 1995. On Sep. 1, 1995, he resigned. On Sep. 28, 2017, the U.S. District Court convicted him on four misdemeanor counts alleging he failed to file a federal income tax return for four consecutive years.
![Photo of Rep. Mel Reynolds [D-IL2, 1993-1995]](/static/legislator-photos/409154-200px.jpeg)
Analysis
Ideology–Leadership Chart
Reynolds 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 Reynolds sponsored and cosponsored from Jan 3, 1991 to Oct 3, 1996. See full analysis methodology.
Bills Sponsored
Issue Areas
Reynolds sponsored bills primarily in these issue areas:
Taxation (26%) Crime and Law Enforcement (26%) Foreign Trade and International Finance (17%) Health (13%) Commerce (9%) Finance and Financial Sector (9%)
Recent Bills
Some of Reynolds’s most recently sponsored bills include...
- H.R. 5124 (103rd): To amend the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to limit the interest ...
- H.Res. 448 (103rd): Amending the Code of Official Conduct of the Rules of the House ...
- H.R. 4450 (103rd): Lock Out Child Crime Act of 1994
- H.R. 3245 (103rd): To amend the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to increase the tax ...
- H.R. 3244 (103rd): Relating to the discount factors applicable to medical malpractice companies under section ...
- H.R. 3184 (103rd): Semiautomatic Assault Weapon Violence Prevention Act of 1993
- H.R. 2897 (103rd): To suspend temporarily the duty on the personal effects of participants in, ...
Voting Record
Missed Votes
From Jan 1993 to Sep 1995, Reynolds missed 451 of 1,822 roll call votes, which is 24.8%. This is much worse than the median of 2.7% among the lifetime records of representatives serving in Sep 1995. 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.
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
- Biographical Directory of the United States Congress for the photo
- GovInfo.gov, for sponsored bills
