Guide to State Politics and Policy

Congressional Information Service. American Statistics Index: A Comprehensive Guide and Index to the Statistical Publications of the U.S. Government. Washington, DC: Congressional Information Service, 1973–. Annual, with monthly supplements. Available online at LexisNexis Statistical DataSets (http://academic.lexisnexis.com).

Definitive guide, multiply indexed, to statistics “of probable research significance” in government publications; 1974 “Annual and Retrospective Edition” includes not only items in print but also significant items published over the preceding decade.

Congressional Information Service. Statistical Reference Index: A Selective Guide to American Statistical Publications from Sources Other Than the U.S. Government. Washington, DC: Congressional Information Service, 1980–. Annual, with bimonthly supplements. Available online at LexisNexis Statistical DataSets (http://academic.lexisnexis.com).

Index of statistics from private and public sources other than the U.S. government; complements the American Statistics Index.

Council of State Governments, http://www.csg.org

Publisher of biannual and annual The Book of the States, which has been published since 1935 and available online since 2000 and contains hundreds of detailed tables and graphics covering the organization and operation of state governments; provides collection of state-level databases on topics like business incentives, state performance.

National Conference of State Legislatures, http://www.ncsl.org

Wide-ranging information on contemporary issues along with data about redistricting, term limits, early and absentee voting, and voter identification requirements; current information about party composition of state legislatures, state legislative leaders, legislative staffs, and more.

State Politics and Policy Quarterly (Data Resource) http://academic.udayton.edu/sppq-TPR

An eclectic collection of datasets submitted by contributors to State Politics and Policy Quarterly and others engaged in state politics research; lists sources for state-level data covering a variety of social, economic, and political topics.

[Page 432]U.S. Census Bureau, http://www.census.gov

Provides a large collection of national, state, and city data as well as links to state data centers through the State Data Center Program.

The Campaign Disclosure Project, http://www.campaigndisclosure.org

Database of campaign finance disclosure laws covering the fifty states, the District of Columbia, and the Federal Election Commission; includes a graded assessment of each state's disclosure programs.

Campaign Finance Information Center, http://www.campaignfinance.org

Summarizes and links to campaign finance data made available online by each state; describes the format of the available data, and the races, years, and transaction types covered.

The Gubernatorial Campaign Finance Database, http://www.unc.edu/~beyle/guber.html

A unified database of campaign expenditures for all gubernatorial candidates from 1977 until the present.

Influence Explorer, http://www.influenceexplorer.com

Tracks political contributions at the federal and state level as well as earmarks, grants, and contracts by state.

Justice at Stake, http://www.justiceatstake.org

Provides links to data on candidate fund-raising and advertising expenditures in state judicial campaigns.

National Institute on Money in State Politics, http://www.followthemoney.org

Database of campaign contributions for all state-level candidates in primary and general elections; includes information about candidates, political party committees, and ballot committees.

NOTE: Many states maintain online searchable databases containing information about cases originating within the state. These databases are typically searchable by keyword, index number, and names of involved parties.

Bureau of Justice Statistics' Courts Data Collections, http://www.bjs.gov

Collection of datasets relevant to the U.S. and state courts, which includes (among other topics) data on caseloads, court system organization and structure, numbers of and disposition of criminal and civil cases, and governance of court systems; jury qualifications and verdict rules; and processing and sentencing procedures for criminal cases.

Civil Justice Survey of State Courts, http://www.ncsc.org/Services-and-Experts/Areas-of-expertise/Civil-justice/Civil-Justice-Survey.aspx

A series of surveys conducted in 1992, 1996, 2001, and 2005 examining civil litigation trends across states; includes information on the nature of cases filed, the disposition of cases heard, and damages awarded.

State Court Caseload Statistics: Annual Report. Williamsburg, VA : Conference of State Court Administrators and the National Center for State Courts, 1976–. Annual.

Data on judicial workloads in the state courts.

State Supreme Court Data Project, http://www.ruf.rice.edu/~pbrace/statecourt

Information on state supreme court decisions in all fifty states during their 1995 through 1998 sessions; includes information on some twenty-one thousand decisions and biographical data for all justices during this period.

Bureau of Economic Analysis, http://bea.gov

Extensive data on gross domestic product (GDP), income, and employment at the state and local level.

Bureau of Labor Statistics, http://www.bls.gov

Data on employment, wages, and prices at the national, state, and local level.

Census Bureau, Federal, State, and Local Governments, http://www.census.gov/gov

Information on revenue, expenditures, numbers of public employees, etc., for state and local governments, and numbers of various levels of local governments.

County and City Data Books, http://www2.1ib.virginia.edu/ccdb/

Extensive data from 1944 through 2000 on a variety of socioeconomic indicators and demographics at the city, county, and state level.

Economic Policy Institute's State Economy Track Data, http://www.epi.org/resources/research_data

State-level data on employment and unemployment covering the years 1981, 1990, 2001, and 2007.

Inforum's EconData, http://inforumweb.umd.edu/econdata

A collection of time-series state-level datasets including information on earnings and income, employment by industry, wages and salaries, and state economic profiles.

ElectionLine, http://www.electionline.org

Nonpartisan clearinghouse with frequent, nationwide updates about election reform, along with analytic reports on selected topics.

Pew Center on the States, http://www.pewstates.org/issues/election-administration-328132

Reports, analyses, and interactive databases concerning election administration by the states. One project, Being Online Is Still Not Enough, rates states on the accessibility of state election websites, while the recently introduced Elections Performance Index (EPI) offers a comprehensive evaluation of election administration in the fifty states and the District of Columbia.

[Page 433]United States Election Assistance Commission, http://www.eac.gov

Research, reports, and data on election administration issues. The Election Administration and Voting Survey collects information from state and county election officials about ballots cast, voter registration, military and overseas voting, and voting technology; the National Voter Registration Act Survey collects information on voter registration trends; the Uniformed and Overseas Citizens Absentee Voter Act (UOCAVA) Survey tracks at the county level the number of UOCAVA ballots sent and received, and their disposition.

Voter turnout, http://elections.gmu.edu

National and state turnout rates for voting age population (VAP) and voting eligible population (VEP), which corrects voter turnout figures by accounting for voting-age persons who are ineligible to vote due to felony convictions or noncitizenship and for overseas eligible voters, from 1980 to the present; provides data for 2012 on early voting.

Congressional Quarterly's Guide to U.S. Elections. 6th ed. Washington, DC: CQ Press, 2009.

Superb collection of vote returns for presidential, gubernatorial, and House elections since 1824, Electoral College votes since 1789, senatorial elections since 1913, presidential primaries since 1912, and primaries for governor and senator since 1956 (in southern states since 1919); biographies of presidential and vice-presidential candidates; lists of governors and senators since 1789; discussions of and data on political parties and presidential nominating conventions throughout the nation's history.

Dubin, Michael J. United States Gubernatorial Elections, 1776–1860: The Official Results by State and County. Jefferson, NC: McFarland, 2003.

Detailed compilation of early gubernatorial elections.

Glashan, Roy R. American Governors and Gubernatorial Elections, 1775–1978. Westport, CT: Meckler, 1979.

Details about state governors (such as birthdays, party affiliations, principal occupations, terms of office) and election data; continued in Mullaney (see below).

Job approval ratings (JARs), http://www.unc.edu/~beyle/jars.html

Approval ratings collected at the state level for governors, U.S. senators, and presidents from the mid-1900s through 2009; survey questions cover both general job performance assessments and evaluations of officials' handling of specific policy issues.

Kallenbach, Joseph E., and Jessamine S. Kallenbach. American State Governors, 1776–1976. Dobbs Ferry, NY: Oceana Publications, 1977–1982.

Election results and biographical data on governors.

Klarner, Carl. Governors Dataset, http://www.indstate.edu/polisci/klarnerpolitics.htm

Dataset at the state–year level covering 1961 to 2010 (with limited coverage of earlier years for some variables) including demographic data about governors in office and data about terms and term limits.

Mullaney, Marie. American Governors and Gubernatorial Elections, 1979–1987. Westport, CT: Meckler, 1988.

Continues the volume by Glashan (see above).

———. Biographical Directory of the Governors of the United States, 1988–1994. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1994.

Details about state governors (such as birthdates, party affiliations, principal occupations, terms of office); continues earlier volume.

Politico (elections), http://www.politico.com

Maps and tables of state- and county-level results for gubernatorial (and national) elections from 2002 to the present; state polls about presidential primary and general elections, U.S. Senate, and some congressional district races.

Scammon, Richard M., Alice McGillivray, and Rhodes Cook, eds. America Votes (series); America at the Poll (series). Washington, DC: CQ Press, 1956–.

Convenient compilation of vote totals and statistics by state for general elections and primaries for president, governor, and senator, principally since 1945 (comparable district-level data for members of Congress); county-level totals and statistics for most recent general election for president, governor, and senator; state maps with county and congressional district boundaries.

Ballotpedia, http://ballotpedia.org

Provides links to state ballot measures and state-by-state information on ballot qualifications and processes; petition drive deadlines; and descriptions, analysis, and results for ballot measures.

Initiative and Referendum Institute, http://www.iandrinstitute.org

State-by-state information about initiative and referendum processes and provisions and reports on all current propositions, including a database of the number and approval rate of initiatives on the ballot in each state since 1904 and a database of the availability of initiatives in 2005 in the thousand largest U.S. cities and ten largest cities in each state.

National Conference of State Legislatures' Initiative and Referendum Resources, http://www.ncsl.org

Reports and data about initiative and referendum availability and provisions across the United States; includes a state-by-state database of initiative and referendum legislation since 1993 and a state-by-state database of ballot measures since 1892, with summaries and analyses of provisions in recent years.

University of California Hastings Law Library, http://library.uchastings.edu/research/online-research/ca-research.php

Limited to California, but gives pdf images of all propositions and initiatives, 1911–2012.

CQ Press Voting and Elections Collection, http://www.cqpress.com/product/928.html

Online, searchable database with information about individual races as well as summary information related to open seat races, party switches, race competitiveness, and so on; fee based.

Lilley, William III, Laurence J. DeFranco, Mark F. Bernstein, and Kari L. Ramsby. The Almanac of State Legislative Elections. 3rd ed. Washington, DC: CQ Press, 2007.

Maps and statistical profiles of the geographic, economic, and political composition of state legislative districts.

Party control of state legislatures, http://www.governing.com/gov-data/politics/2012-state-legislature-elections-map.html

Interactive map showing changes in party control in state legislatures as a result of the 2012 elections.

State legislative election returns, ICPSR Study No. 34297 http://www.icpsr.umich.edu

Comprehensive data on state legislative election returns from 1967 through 2010; includes information on district and candidate attributes.

U.S. Census Bureau, http://www.census.gov

Starting in 2005, demographic data on state legislative districts (above and beyond the racial/ethnic composition used for redistricting).

NOTE: Most if not all state legislatures now provide online bill tracking and have also archived that data. Many go back to the mid-1990s. One can use these archives to gather information regarding sponsors, final dispositions, content, committee assignments, etc. Many provide full text of all versions (e.g., introduced, amended, final) of every bill. Typically these are searchable by bill number and/or sponsor(s).

Dubin, Michael J. Party Affiliations in the State Legislatures: A Year by Year Summary, 1796–2006. Jefferson, NC: McFarland, 2007.

Extensive data on states' electoral processes, term lengths, legislature size, and membership by party, election dates, and more.

National Conference of State Legislatures, http://www.ncsl.org

Compilations of laws and data on elections, redistricting, term limits, and other topics, as well as links to websites of individual state legislatures.

The Open States Project, http://www.openstates.org

Beta site includes database, for many but not all states, of detailed information on state legislative bills and the activities of legislators and committees.

Silbey, Joel, ed. Encyclopedia of the American Legislative System: Studies of the Principal Structures, Processes, and Policies of Congress and State Legislatures since the Colonial Era. 3 vols. New York: Scribner's, 1994–1996.

A thorough treatment of the national and state legislatures.

State Legislative Sourcebook. Topeka, KS: Government Research Service, 1986–. Annual.

A guide to finding detailed information on state legislative material, including offices, addresses, phone numbers, and price lists; a list of state statistical abstracts (or near equivalents), of widely varying quality, can be found in recent editions of the Statistical Abstract of the United States.

State partisan balance, http://www.indstate.edu/polisci/klarnerpolitics.htm

Dataset spanning 1937 to 2011 including information on partisan control of state legislatures, governors' offices, and state institutions.

The Center for American Women and Politics (CAWP), http://www.cawp.rutgers.edu

A wealth of data about women in and running for elective office in the United States, particularly at the national, state, and statelegislative levels.

Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies' National Roster of Black Elected Officials, http://www.jointcenter.org

Lists black elected officials by office with summary tabulations on historical trends and comparative state figures; the Roster of Black Elected Officials is available for a fee.

National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials, http://www.naleo.org

Includes a directory of Latino elected officials, and profiles and electoral projections for Latino candidates for state legislature; although rosters/directories (especially noncurrent ones) are for sale and are not easily available or accessible for free, they may be available through interlibrary loan.

National Governors Association, http://www.nga.org

Searchable database of biographical information on current and former governors; includes staff directories and contact information for each governor's office, election returns data from 2009 to the present, and a collection of reports and publications concerning the functions and powers of each governor's office.

Numbers and types of governments (U.S. Census Bureau), http://www.census.gov/govs/go/index.html

A collection of reports and data including numbers and types of local governments within a state, descriptions of local governments within each state, comparisons of governments' authority between and within states, and key statistics on state and local governments.

State and local government on the net, http://www.statelocalgov.net

A complete directory of state and local government websites.

[Page 435]State Yellow Book, New York: Leadership Directories, 1973

Some statistics, but emphasizes contact information for executive and legislative branches, including departments, commissions, agencies, and legislative leadership and legislative committees; continues State Information Book (http://www.leadershipdirectories.com).

Note: Many universities and local news sources collect public opinion data within the state in which they are located. See the website for Cornell Institute for Social and Economic Research (http://www.ciser.cornell.edu/info/polls.shtml) for a list of sources of polling data with a state or regional emphasis.

Citizen and state ideology, http://rcfording.wordpress.com/state-ideology-data

A measure of state citizen ideology and two measures of government ideology.

Gallup Poll, http://www.gallup.com

Large, historically rich collection of survey data concerning politics, the state of the economy, personal well-being, and many social issues—most extensive coverage is at the national level.

Odum Institute, University of North Carolina, http://www.irss.unc.edu/odum

A searchable archive of public opinion survey data at the national and state level dating from 1958 to the present, covering a range of social, economic, and political topics; includes the National Network of State Polls.

http://PollingReport.com, http://www.pollingreport.com

Aggregates polls on numerous contemporary issues; subscriber pages contain state-by-state data from election and issue polling: campaign polls, media polls, academic polls, and polls by political, business, and public-interest groups.

Roper Center for Public Opinion Research, http://www.ropercenter.uconn.edu

An extensive collection of datasets produced from surveys conducted at the national, state, or regional level pertaining to a wide variety of social, economic, political, and current topics.

Note: There are vast amounts of data on the Web covering all manner of social issues. Many of these are government-sponsored; some are sponsored by independent, nonpartisan groups; others are maintained by advocacy groups but may still contain good descriptive information. Many sites are well-maintained, including not only up-to-date information but, increasingly, historical data as well. The following data sources are just a sampling of the many resources available.