Robert Dornan, former Representative for California's 46th Congressional District

Dornan was the representative for California’s 46^th congressional district and was a Republican. He served from 1993 to 1996.

He was previously the representative for California’s 38^th congressional district as a Republican from 1985 to 1992; and the representative for California’s 27^th congressional district as a Republican from 1977 to 1982.

Photo of Rep. Robert Dornan [R-CA46, 1993-1996]

Analysis

Ideology–Leadership Chart

Dornan 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 Dornan sponsored and cosponsored from Jan 3, 1991 to Oct 3, 1996. See full analysis methodology.

Enacted Legislation

Dornan was the primary sponsor of 4 bills that were enacted:

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Does 4 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

Dornan sponsored bills primarily in these issue areas:

Government Operations and Politics (19%) Armed Forces and National Security (17%) Health (12%) Civil Rights and Liberties, Minority Issues (11%) Law (11%) International Affairs (10%) Taxation (9%) Labor and Employment (9%)

Recently Introduced Bills

Dornan recently introduced the following legislation:

View All » | View Cosponsors »

Most legislation has no activity after being introduced.

Voting Record

Missed Votes

From Jan 1977 to Sep 1996, Dornan missed 1,027 of 9,755 roll call votes, which is 10.5%. This is much 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
1977 Jan-Mar	100	12	12.0%	78^th
1977 Apr-Jun	273	31	11.4%	70^th
1977 Jul-Sep	198	30	15.2%	85^th
1977 Oct-Dec	135	7	5.2%	49^th
1978 Jan-Mar	150	24	16.0%	82^nd
1978 Apr-Jun	300	40	13.3%	64^th
1978 Jul-Sep	308	12	3.9%	31^st
1978 Oct-Oct	76	3	3.9%	34^th
1979 Jan-Mar	63	12	19.0%	83^rd
1979 Apr-Jun	221	20	9.0%	66^th
1979 Jul-Sep	198	4	2.0%	17^th
1979 Oct-Dec	190	30	15.8%	77^th
1980 Jan-Mar	148	31	20.9%	87^th
1980 Apr-Jun	197	43	21.8%	90^th
1980 Jul-Sep	192	12	6.2%	45^th
1980 Oct-Dec	67	6	9.0%	46^th
1981 Jan-Mar	15	1	6.7%	42^nd
1981 Apr-Jun	90	9	10.0%	71^st
1981 Jul-Sep	106	25	23.6%	98^th
1981 Oct-Dec	142	64	45.1%	99^th
1982 Feb-Mar	48	35	72.9%	98^th
1982 Apr-Jun	119	33	27.7%	95^th
1982 Jul-Sep	193	78	40.4%	98^th
1982 Oct-Dec	99	4	4.0%	34^th
1985 Jan-Mar	36	7	19.4%	91^st
1985 Apr-Jun	154	9	5.8%	63^rd
1985 Jul-Sep	101	11	10.9%	83^rd
1985 Oct-Dec	148	5	3.4%	49^th
1986 Jan-Mar	61	8	13.1%	78^th
1986 Apr-Jun	128	14	10.9%	89^th
1986 Jul-Sep	202	6	3.0%	50^th
1986 Oct-Oct	60	0	0.0%	0^th
1987 Jan-Mar	39	2	5.1%	57^th
1987 Apr-Jun	187	17	9.1%	81^st
1987 Jul-Sep	95	17	17.9%	93^rd
1987 Oct-Dec	167	14	8.4%	66^th
1988 Feb-Mar	49	9	18.4%	91^st
1988 Apr-Jun	161	13	8.1%	72^nd
1988 Jul-Sep	152	11	7.2%	69^th
1988 Oct-Oct	89	2	2.2%	51^st
1989 Jan-Mar	14	1	7.1%	54^th
1989 Apr-Jun	105	24	22.9%	97^th
1989 Jul-Sep	128	6	4.7%	73^rd
1989 Oct-Nov	121	2	1.7%	25^th
1990 Jan-Mar	60	9	15.0%	92^nd
1990 Apr-Jun	150	13	8.7%	85^th
1990 Jul-Sep	183	13	7.1%	83^rd
1990 Oct-Oct	143	5	3.5%	53^rd
1991 Jan-Mar	62	7	11.3%	92^nd
1991 Apr-Jun	139	17	12.2%	93^rd
1991 Jul-Sep	81	6	7.4%	73^rd
1991 Oct-Nov	162	4	2.5%	51^st
1992 Jan-Mar	66	7	10.6%	85^th
1992 Apr-Jun	185	20	10.8%	88^th
1992 Jul-Sep	196	9	4.6%	65^th
1992 Oct-Oct	41	0	0.0%	0^th
1993 Jan-Mar	127	14	11.0%	93^rd
1993 Apr-Jun	190	11	5.8%	72^nd
1993 Jul-Sep	164	11	6.7%	86^th
1993 Oct-Nov	134	7	5.2%	83^rd
1994 Jan-Mar	95	13	13.7%	93^rd
1994 Apr-Jun	219	9	4.1%	71^st
1994 Jul-Sep	142	18	12.7%	93^rd
1994 Oct-Nov	51	3	5.9%	79^th
1995 Jan-Mar	279	14	5.0%	86^th
1995 Apr-Jun	189	14	7.4%	87^th
1995 Jul-Sep	232	8	3.4%	69^th
1995 Oct-Dec	185	26	14.1%	96^th
1996 Jan-Mar	110	9	8.2%	85^th
1996 Apr-Jun	182	6	3.3%	58^th
1996 Jul-Sep	163	10	6.1%	82^nd

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

Rep. Robert Dornan

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