Two Ways to Measure Tenure

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.”

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

 

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).