Rep. Jim Bates

Former Representative for California’s 44^th District

Bates was the representative for California’s 44^th congressional district and was a Democrat. He served from 1983 to 1990.

Bioguide

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Misconduct

In 1989, the House Committee on Standards of Official Conduct investigated Bates for sexual harassment and improper campaign activity in congressional office. On Oct. 18, 1989, the committee adopted a public letter of reproval. In 1989, he admitted to violations and wrote personal letter of apology.

Oct. 18, 1989	House Committee on Standards of Official Conduct adopted a public letter of reproval
1989	Admitted to violations and wrote personal letter of apology.

Analysis

Ideology–Leadership Chart

Bates is shown as a purple triangle ▲ in our ideology-leadership chart below. Each dot was a member of the House of Representatives in 1990 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 Bates sponsored and cosponsored from Jan 3, 1985 to Oct 27, 1990. See full analysis methodology.

Enacted Legislation

Bates 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

Bates sponsored bills primarily in these issue areas:

Government Operations and Politics (23%) Health (21%) Environmental Protection (18%) Armed Forces and National Security (12%) Foreign Trade and International Finance (9%) International Affairs (7%) Economics and Public Finance (5%) Transportation and Public Works (5%)

Recently Introduced Bills

Bates recently introduced the following legislation:

View All » | View Cosponsors »

Most legislation has no activity after being introduced.

Voting Record

Missed Votes

From Jan 1983 to Oct 1990, Bates missed 190 of 3,639 roll call votes, which is 5.2%. This is on par with the median of 4.8% among the lifetime records of representatives serving in Oct 1990. 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
1983 Jan-Mar	43	1	2.3%	17^th
1983 Apr-Jun	182	8	4.4%	36^th
1983 Jul-Sep	130	5	3.8%	48^th
1983 Oct-Nov	143	11	7.7%	61^st
1984 Jan-Mar	53	1	1.9%	23^rd
1984 Apr-Jun	223	15	6.7%	54^th
1984 Jul-Sep	96	4	4.2%	46^th
1984 Oct-Oct	36	4	11.1%	69^th
1985 Jan-Mar	36	3	8.3%	51^st
1985 Apr-Jun	154	6	3.9%	42^nd
1985 Jul-Sep	101	6	5.9%	64^th
1985 Oct-Dec	148	4	2.7%	39^th
1986 Jan-Mar	61	1	1.6%	18^th
1986 Apr-Jun	128	0	0.0%	0^th
1986 Jul-Sep	202	4	2.0%	33^rd
1986 Oct-Oct	60	2	3.3%	47^th
1987 Jan-Mar	39	0	0.0%	0^th
1987 Apr-Jun	187	11	5.9%	60^th
1987 Jul-Sep	95	9	9.5%	81^st
1987 Oct-Dec	167	17	10.2%	75^th
1988 Feb-Mar	49	0	0.0%	0^th
1988 Apr-Jun	161	15	9.3%	79^th
1988 Jul-Sep	152	10	6.6%	64^th
1988 Oct-Oct	89	0	0.0%	0^th
1989 Jan-Mar	14	0	0.0%	0^th
1989 Apr-Jun	105	9	8.6%	82^nd
1989 Jul-Sep	128	0	0.0%	0^th
1989 Oct-Nov	121	3	2.5%	30^th
1990 Jan-Mar	60	8	13.3%	88^th
1990 Apr-Jun	150	17	11.3%	88^th
1990 Jul-Sep	183	5	2.7%	46^th
1990 Oct-Oct	143	11	7.7%	72^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
GovInfo.gov, for sponsored bills