U.S. Senate Candidate Research California on the Hill WBPS103W: Winter 2006

LIBRARY Institute of Governmental Studies University of California 109 Moses Hall #2370  Berkeley, CA 94720-2370  510-642-1472 (voice)  510-643-0866 (fax)

A. Current Awareness Sources

1. The Hotline Online nationaljournal.com/pubs/hotline/). Key insider newsletter on national politics.
2. Politics1.com Online www.politics1.com/. One of many sites tracking national politics and elections.
3. Roll Call. Online in Lexis-Nexis Academic/District of Columbia News Sources). Weekly. "The newspaper of Capitol Hill."
4. The Hill. Online in Lexis-Nexis Academic/District of Columbia News Sources). Weekly. "The Capitol newspaper."

B. Information about Officeholders and Candidates

1. CQ Congress Collection. Online library.cqpress.com/congress/. Profiles of U.S. Senate and House members.
2. Almanac of American Politics. Online nationaljournal.com/members/almanac/. Profiles of U.S. Senatae and House members.
3. California Political Almanac. Print. Biennial. Profiles of state legislators. 2005-06 ed. online: http://library.cqpress.com/. Earlier volumes: 1989/90(1)-1999/2000 (IGSL Ref.; Main JK8768.C343, latest in Doe Ref-Govt/Stat).
4. Official profiles of U.S. Senate and House members on the Web.

House: www.house.gov/house/MemberWWW.html

Senate: www.senate.gov/senators/index.cfm

5. Lexis-Nexis Congressional Online web.lexis-nexis.com/congcomp/. Member profiles, voting records, campaign finance data.

C. Election Statistics and Campaign Finance

1. Cal-Access - California Automated Lobbying and Campaign Contribution & Expenditure Search System. Online cal-access.ss.ca.gov/. 2000 primary election onward. Detailed campaign finance information from the California Secretary of State. Names of individual donors and the amounts contributed. Candidates or committees raising or spending $50,000 or more are required to file. (The filing threshold was $100,000 for the 2000 primary--the first time the system was used.)
   Total contributions and expenditures for specific races are available from the Cal-Access Advanced Reports page; select the Summary Reports for ballot measures, candidates or political parties.
2. Follow the Money Online www.followthemoney.org/. Institute on Money in State Politics. Database for tracking interest group campaign contributions in state elections. California coverage begins with 1998.
3. CQ Voting and Elections Collection Online library2.cqpress.com/elections/. Extensive database of election data for presidential, congressional and gubernatorial elections.
4. OpenSecrets.org. Online www.opensecrets.org/. Center for Responsive Politics. Extensive database on campaign finance at the federal and state levels. Search by candidate and donor names and by geographic area, including zipcode. Highly recommended!
5. PoliticalMoneyLine. Online www.tray.com/. Major site for federal campaign finance data. Includes databases searchable by candidate name and donor.
6. Campaign Finance Reports and Data. Online www.fec.gov/1996/sdrindex.htm. Federal Election Commission data in HTML format. Also includes an image database of the actual financial reports filed by campaigns and committees for presidential and House races.

D. News Sources

1. Lexis-Nexis Academic Online web.lexis-nexis.com/universe/form/academic/s_guidednews.html. The Lexis-Nexis full-text online news service for academic users. Includes hundreds of newspaper, legal, and business information sources.
   To search leading newspapers across the U.S. (e.g., New York Times, Washington Post), select General News in the "Step One: Select a News Category" box. Then select Major Papers in the "Step Two: Select a News Source" box.
   From the navigation bar on the main search page also try Reference, then Biographical Information for profiles of incumbents and candidates.
2. Access World News (U.S. Newspapers) Online info.newsbank.com. Full-text access to 300 U.S. newspapers.

E. Public Opinion Polls

1. Poll Track (National Journal Group's Policy Central). Online nationaljournal.com/members/polltrack/. Excellent site for polls on presidential, Senate, House and gubernatorial races.
2. Gallup Brain. Online institution.gallup.com/. The latest Gallup polls, plus a 60-year database of Gallup polling data.
3. PollingReport.com. Online pollingreport.com/. Up-to-date national polling.
4. Polling the Nations. Online poll.orspub.com. International database of polling data; includes the Field Poll and LA Times Poll. Indexes to the question level.
5. Zogby International. Online www.zogby.com. Some free polling data provided. See, e.g., the Special Feature section.

Rev. 1/18/2006