Rep. Parren Mitchell

Former Representative for Maryland’s 7^th District

Mitchell was the representative for Maryland’s 7^th congressional district and was a Democrat. He served from 1971 to 1986.

Bioguide

Photo of Rep. Parren Mitchell [D-MD7, 1971-1986]

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Analysis

Ideology–Leadership Chart

Mitchell is shown as a purple triangle ▲ in our ideology-leadership chart below. Each dot was a member of the House of Representatives in 1986 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 Mitchell sponsored and cosponsored from Jan 5, 1981 to Oct 18, 1986. See full analysis methodology.

Enacted Legislation

Mitchell was the primary sponsor of 13 bills that were enacted. The most recent include:

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Does 13 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

Mitchell sponsored bills primarily in these issue areas:

Commerce (39%) Government Operations and Politics (23%) Economics and Public Finance (14%) Labor and Employment (7%) Armed Forces and National Security (6%) International Affairs (6%)

Recently Introduced Bills

Mitchell 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 1986, Mitchell missed 943 of 8,422 roll call votes, which is 11.2%. This is worse than the median of 6.2% among the lifetime records of representatives serving in Oct 1986. 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%	53^rd
1971 Apr-Jun	90	9	10.0%	31^st
1971 Jul-Sep	74	9	12.2%	61^st
1971 Oct-Dec	134	20	14.9%	62^nd
1972 Jan-Mar	64	11	17.2%	79^th
1972 Apr-Jun	114	20	17.5%	71^st
1972 Jul-Sep	101	8	7.9%	49^th
1972 Oct-Oct	50	3	6.0%	30^th
1973 Jan-Mar	36	3	8.3%	56^th
1973 Apr-Jun	191	7	3.7%	20^th
1973 Jul-Sep	131	7	5.3%	46^th
1973 Oct-Dec	182	27	14.8%	82^nd
1974 Jan-Mar	79	21	26.6%	94^th
1974 Apr-Jun	170	12	7.1%	37^th
1974 Jul-Sep	148	15	10.1%	78^th
1974 Oct-Dec	141	12	8.5%	45^th
1975 Jan-Mar	68	2	2.9%	32^nd
1975 Apr-Jun	199	19	9.5%	68^th
1975 Jul-Sep	154	17	11.0%	75^th
1975 Oct-Dec	191	10	5.2%	51^st
1976 Jan-Mar	106	2	1.9%	24^th
1976 Apr-Jun	267	28	10.5%	58^th
1976 Jul-Sep	281	14	5.0%	41^st
1976 Oct-Oct	7	3	42.9%	88^th
1977 Jan-Mar	100	6	6.0%	53^rd
1977 Apr-Jun	273	27	9.9%	67^th
1977 Jul-Sep	198	23	11.6%	77^th
1977 Oct-Dec	135	14	10.4%	69^th
1978 Jan-Mar	150	13	8.7%	57^th
1978 Apr-Jun	300	19	6.3%	41^st
1978 Jul-Sep	308	45	14.6%	77^th
1978 Oct-Oct	76	11	14.5%	80^th
1979 Jan-Mar	61	2	3.3%	57^th
1979 Apr-Jun	221	16	7.2%	51^st
1979 Jul-Sep	198	30	15.2%	86^th
1979 Oct-Dec	190	25	13.2%	69^th
1980 Jan-Mar	148	14	9.5%	52^nd
1980 Apr-Jun	197	35	17.8%	88^th
1980 Jul-Sep	192	23	12.0%	68^th
1980 Oct-Dec	67	12	17.9%	73^rd
1981 Jan-Mar	15	1	6.7%	46^th
1981 Apr-Jun	90	8	8.9%	63^rd
1981 Jul-Sep	106	15	14.2%	86^th
1981 Oct-Dec	142	23	16.2%	85^th
1982 Feb-Mar	48	4	8.3%	56^th
1982 Apr-Jun	119	10	8.4%	72^nd
1982 Jul-Sep	193	26	13.5%	82^nd
1982 Oct-Dec	99	12	12.1%	67^th
1983 Jan-Mar	43	3	7.0%	46^th
1983 Apr-Jun	182	13	7.1%	52^nd
1983 Jul-Sep	130	9	6.9%	71^st
1983 Oct-Nov	143	32	22.4%	95^th
1984 Jan-Mar	53	8	15.1%	78^th
1984 Apr-Jun	223	20	9.0%	65^th
1984 Jul-Sep	96	2	2.1%	30^th
1984 Oct-Oct	36	5	13.9%	75^th
1985 Jan-Mar	36	4	11.1%	65^th
1985 Apr-Jun	154	21	13.6%	91^st
1985 Jul-Sep	101	6	5.9%	59^th
1985 Oct-Dec	148	22	14.9%	93^rd
1986 Jan-Mar	61	3	4.9%	36^th
1986 Apr-Jun	128	23	18.0%	93^rd
1986 Jul-Sep	202	49	24.3%	94^th
1986 Oct-Oct	60	28	46.7%	96^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
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