A follow-up to the recent post about legislator age statistics… another interesting way to look at the Legislature and the passage of time is to look at the members who had the longest legislative careers.
But, as with everything else, there are multiple ways to measure “the longest legislative careers”; the easiest way to explain it is “Time in Office” vs. “Length of Career.”
Ralph Dills
The first and most common way to measure career longevity is to look at how long a member held elected office. That’s how we do it on JoinCalifornia’s Longest Terms in Office page. The longest-serving state legislator is Ralph Dills, who was a member of the Legislature for 42 years and 18 weeks. The top 25 officeholders by this measure are:
25 Legislators with the Longest Time in Office:
| Legislator | Time in Office | |
| 1 | Dills, Ralph C. | 42 years, 18 weeks |
| 2 | Thomas, Vincent | 37 years, 48 weeks |
| 3 | Vasconcellos, John | 37 years, 48 weeks |
| 4 | Petris, Nicholas C. | 37 years, 48 weeks |
| 5 | Collier, Randolph | 37 years, 48 weeks |
| 6 | Marks, Milton | 37 years, 48 weeks |
| 7 | Slater, Herbert W. | 36 years, 32 weeks |
| 8 | Greene, Leroy F. | 35 years, 48 weeks |
| 9 | Lyon, Charles W. | 34 years, 0 weeks |
| 10 | Burns, Hugh M. | 34 years, 0 weeks |
| 11 | Alquist, Alfred E. | 33 years, 48 weeks |
| 12 | Maloney, Thomas A. | 32 years, 0 weeks |
| 13 | Donnelly, Hugh P. | 32 years, 0 weeks |
| 14 | Russell, Newton R. | 31 years, 48 weeks |
| 15 | Collier, John L. E. | 31 years, 48 weeks |
| 16 | Brown, Willie L. | 30 years, 50 weeks |
| 17 | Crittenden, Bradford S. | 30 years, 0 weeks |
| 18 | Parkman, Harry L. | 30 years, 0 weeks |
| 19 | Grunsky, Donald L. | 29 years, 48 weeks |
| 20 | Beverly, Robert G. | 29 years, 30 weeks |
| 21 | McBride, James J. | 28 years, 24 weeks |
| 22 | Hawkins, Augustus F. | 28 years, 0 weeks |
| 23 | Swing, Ralph E. | 28 years, 0 weeks |
| 24 | Stiern, Walter W. | 27 years, 48 weeks |
| 25 | Lanterman, Frank | 27 years, 48 weeks |
Jess Dorsey
Alternatively, you look at the total time that passed between when the elected official’s first day in office and their last. Probably not surprisingly, Dills appears at the top of this list, having a career that stretched over nearly 60 years (his service as a lawmaker was interrupted between 1949 and 1966 while he was serving as a Los Angeles County Municipal Court judge.
You’ll see some new names on this list, including Frederick Lux, who served in the Assembly in the 1860s and again 1903 and Jess R. Dorsey, who was first elected to the Assembly in 1902 and died in office in 1958.
25 Legislators with the Longest Careers:
| Legislator | Time Between Assuming to Leaving Office | Time in Office | |
| 1 | Dills, Ralph C. | 59 years, 48 weeks | 42.35 |
| 2 | Dorsey, Jesse R. | 55 years, 38 weeks | 19.75 |
| 3 | Dymally, Mervyn M. | 45 years, 47 weeks | 18.02 |
| 4 | Coombs, Frank L. | 43 years, 51 weeks | 18 |
| 5 | Clarke, George A. | 43 years, 50 weeks | 22 |
| 6 | Godfrey, George B. | 41 years, 51 weeks | 2 |
| 7 | Lux, Frederick | 41 years, 50 weeks | 4 |
| 8 | Lyon, Charles W. | 39 years, 51 weeks | 34 |
| 9 | Phelps, Timothy Guy | 39 years, 50 weeks | 7 |
| 10 | Burton, John L. | 39 years, 48 weeks | 26.48 |
| 11 | Vasconcellos, John | 37 years, 48 weeks | 37.92 |
| 12 | Petris, Nicholas C. | 37 years, 48 weeks | 37.92 |
| 13 | Collier, Randolph | 37 years, 48 weeks | 37.92 |
| 14 | Thomas, Vincent | 37 years, 47 weeks | 37.92 |
| 15 | Marks, Milton | 37 years, 45 weeks | 37.92 |
| 16 | Slater, Herbert W. | 36 years, 32 weeks | 36.62 |
| 17 | Treacy, Timothy E. | 35 years, 51 weeks | 3.83 |
| 18 | Greene, Leroy F. | 35 years, 47 weeks | 35.92 |
| 19 | Burns, Hugh M. | 33 years, 51 weeks | 34 |
| 20 | Nielsen, Roy J. | 33 years, 51 weeks | 22 |
| 21 | Durst, D. P. | 33 years, 50 weeks | 3 |
| 22 | Bane, Tom | 33 years, 48 weeks | 24 |
| 23 | Alquist, Alfred E. | 33 years, 47 weeks | 33.92 |
| 24 | Johnson, Grove L. | 33 years, 3 weeks | 15 |
| 25 | May, William B. | 32 years, 50 weeks | 11 |
Please note: the list above includes only legislators who have left office (and does not include Senator Jim Nielsen (who has served a total of 18.9 years in the California Legislature over a period of 37 years).
