Ronald Dellums, former Representative for California's 9th Congressional District

Dellums was the representative for California’s 9^th congressional district and was a Democrat. He served from 1993 to 1998.

He was previously the representative for California’s 8^th congressional district as a Democrat from 1975 to 1992; and the representative for California’s 7^th congressional district as a Democrat from 1971 to 1974.

Alleged misconduct & resolution

In 1983, the House Committee on Standards of Official Conduct investigated Dellums for using cocaine and marijuana and preliminary inquiry voted; Special Counsel investigated and found no basis for statement of alleged violation. On Nov. 17, 1983, the committee took no further action.

Nov. 17, 1983

House Committee on Standards of Official Conduct preliminary inquiry voted; Special Counsel investigated and found no basis for statement of alleged violation; committee took no further action

Photo of Rep. Ronald Dellums [D-CA9, 1993-1998]

Analysis

Ideology–Leadership Chart

Dellums is shown as a purple triangle ▲ in our ideology-leadership chart below. Each dot was a member of the House of Representatives in 1998 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 Dellums sponsored and cosponsored from Jan 5, 1993 to Dec 17, 1998. See full analysis methodology.

Enacted Legislation

Dellums was the primary sponsor of 20 bills that were enacted. The most recent include:

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Does 20 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

Dellums sponsored bills primarily in these issue areas:

Government Operations and Politics (20%) Foreign Trade and International Finance (14%) Health (12%) Labor and Employment (11%) Armed Forces and National Security (11%) Education (11%) Civil Rights and Liberties, Minority Issues (10%) Crime and Law Enforcement (10%)

Recent Bills

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

View All » | View Cosponsors »

Voting Record

Missed Votes

From Jan 1971 to Feb 1998, Dellums missed 1,331 of 14,312 roll call votes, which is 9.3%. This is much worse than the median of 2.6% among the lifetime records of representatives serving in Feb 1998. 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
1971 Jan-Mar	22	6	27.3%	65^th
1971 Apr-Jun	90	24	26.7%	76^th
1971 Jul-Sep	74	9	12.2%	82^nd
1971 Oct-Dec	134	24	17.9%	59^th
1972 Jan-Mar	64	16	25.0%	88^th
1972 Apr-Jun	114	23	20.2%	65^th
1972 Jul-Sep	101	5	5.0%	18^th
1972 Oct-Oct	50	7	14.0%	56^th
1973 Jan-Mar	36	1	2.8%	25^th
1973 Apr-Jun	191	6	3.1%	21^st
1973 Jul-Sep	131	3	2.3%	46^th
1973 Oct-Dec	182	26	14.3%	71^st
1974 Jan-Mar	79	13	16.5%	86^th
1974 Apr-Jun	170	26	15.3%	71^st
1974 Jul-Sep	148	10	6.8%	61^st
1974 Oct-Dec	141	18	12.8%	79^th
1975 Jan-Mar	68	9	13.2%	85^th
1975 Apr-Jun	199	12	6.0%	52^nd
1975 Jul-Sep	154	10	6.5%	55^th
1975 Oct-Dec	191	4	2.1%	22^nd
1976 Jan-Mar	106	17	16.0%	88^th
1976 Apr-Jun	267	31	11.6%	63^rd
1976 Jul-Sep	281	24	8.5%	61^st
1976 Oct-Oct	7	0	0.0%	0^th
1977 Jan-Mar	100	7	7.0%	59^th
1977 Apr-Jun	273	28	10.3%	69^th
1977 Jul-Sep	198	7	3.5%	33^rd
1977 Oct-Dec	135	10	7.4%	60^th
1978 Jan-Mar	150	32	21.3%	90^th
1978 Apr-Jun	300	78	26.0%	85^th
1978 Jul-Sep	308	40	13.0%	69^th
1978 Oct-Oct	76	5	6.6%	54^th
1979 Jan-Mar	63	5	7.9%	72^nd
1979 Apr-Jun	221	33	14.9%	81^st
1979 Jul-Sep	198	26	13.1%	83^rd
1979 Oct-Dec	190	36	18.9%	83^rd
1980 Jan-Mar	148	23	15.5%	77^th
1980 Apr-Jun	197	28	14.2%	75^th
1980 Jul-Sep	192	29	15.1%	79^th
1980 Oct-Dec	67	22	32.8%	89^th
1981 Jan-Mar	15	0	0.0%	0^th
1981 Apr-Jun	90	15	16.7%	88^th
1981 Jul-Sep	106	7	6.6%	63^rd
1981 Oct-Dec	142	40	28.2%	97^th
1982 Feb-Mar	48	13	27.1%	91^st
1982 Apr-Jun	119	6	5.0%	57^th
1982 Jul-Sep	193	20	10.4%	78^th
1982 Oct-Dec	99	11	11.1%	66^th
1983 Jan-Mar	43	9	20.9%	92^nd
1983 Apr-Jun	182	11	6.0%	51^st
1983 Jul-Sep	130	31	23.8%	98^th
1983 Oct-Nov	143	18	12.6%	84^th
1984 Jan-Mar	53	1	1.9%	24^th
1984 Apr-Jun	223	15	6.7%	55^th
1984 Jul-Sep	96	3	3.1%	39^th
1984 Oct-Oct	36	2	5.6%	49^th
1985 Jan-Mar	36	4	11.1%	65^th
1985 Apr-Jun	154	12	7.8%	74^th
1985 Jul-Sep	101	3	3.0%	41^st
1985 Oct-Dec	148	6	4.1%	54^th
1986 Jan-Mar	61	3	4.9%	42^nd
1986 Apr-Jun	128	15	11.7%	90^th
1986 Jul-Sep	202	9	4.5%	59^th
1986 Oct-Oct	60	4	6.7%	65^th
1987 Jan-Mar	39	1	2.6%	41^st
1987 Apr-Jun	187	4	2.1%	32^nd
1987 Jul-Sep	95	3	3.2%	53^rd
1987 Oct-Dec	167	18	10.8%	77^th
1988 Feb-Mar	49	4	8.2%	71^st
1988 Apr-Jun	161	9	5.6%	64^th
1988 Jul-Sep	152	9	5.9%	63^rd
1988 Oct-Oct	89	2	2.2%	53^rd
1989 Jan-Mar	14	1	7.1%	55^th
1989 Apr-Jun	105	8	7.6%	84^th
1989 Jul-Sep	128	2	1.6%	34^th
1989 Oct-Nov	121	8	6.6%	73^rd
1990 Jan-Mar	60	4	6.7%	81^st
1990 Apr-Jun	150	13	8.7%	86^th
1990 Jul-Sep	183	6	3.3%	54^th
1990 Oct-Oct	143	7	4.9%	62^nd
1991 Jan-Mar	62	5	8.1%	87^th
1991 Apr-Jun	139	2	1.4%	28^th
1991 Jul-Sep	81	5	6.2%	69^th
1991 Oct-Nov	162	17	10.5%	93^rd
1992 Jan-Mar	66	8	12.1%	88^th
1992 Apr-Jun	185	10	5.4%	71^st
1992 Jul-Sep	196	8	4.1%	61^st
1992 Oct-Oct	41	7	17.1%	91^st
1993 Jan-Mar	127	18	14.2%	98^th
1993 Apr-Jun	190	18	9.5%	87^th
1993 Jul-Sep	164	4	2.4%	61^st
1993 Oct-Nov	134	8	6.0%	86^th
1994 Jan-Mar	95	8	8.4%	84^th
1994 Apr-Jun	219	13	5.9%	82^nd
1994 Jul-Sep	142	6	4.2%	67^th
1994 Oct-Nov	51	4	7.8%	86^th
1995 Jan-Mar	279	3	1.1%	46^th
1995 Apr-Jun	189	5	2.6%	61^st
1995 Jul-Sep	232	4	1.7%	49^th
1995 Oct-Dec	185	3	1.6%	44^th
1996 Jan-Mar	110	7	6.4%	83^rd
1996 Apr-Jun	182	3	1.6%	41^st
1996 Jul-Sep	163	15	9.2%	93^rd
1997 Jan-Mar	71	2	2.8%	57^th
1997 Apr-Jun	174	1	0.6%	18^th
1997 Jul-Sep	232	40	17.2%	98^th
1997 Oct-Nov	163	13	8.0%	86^th
1998 Jan-Mar	11	4	36.4%	99^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

Rep. Ronald Dellums

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