Campaign Strategy

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A. Library Resources

1. IGS Library Holdings on Bay Area/California Politics & Policy. The IGS Library collects local public affairs materials, and indexes lead articles from various local publications such as the San Francisco Bay Guardian and the Express. The IGS Library also collects election materials on statewide and local (San Francisco, Oakland & Berkeley) candidates and propositions. Records for these materials, 1983 onward, are in the Melvyl Online Catalog (melvyl.cdlib.org/). Search for them by title keyword, subject and author — just as you would search for other materials in Melvyl.
2. IGS Library Website. Online igs.berkeley.edu/library/.  Many useful links to websites on California and U.S. politics and public affairs. Good for a sampling of what the Web has to offer. Might give you ideas for further Internet searching.
3. Melvyl Online Catalog. melvyl.cdlib.org. For books and monographs.
4. UC Berkeley Library Electronic Resources (UC only). http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/find/types/electronic_resources.html.
Search by subject or type of resource, including:
1. Biographical Sources (UC Berkeley only). http://sunsite2.berkeley.edu:8088/ERF/servlet/ERFmain?cmd=searchResType&resTypeId=5

B. Information about Political Candidates

1. CQ's Politics in America. Print. Material online (UC Berkeley only) in CQ's Congress Collection: library.cqpress.com/congress/. Biennial. Profiles of U.S. Senate and House members. (IGSL Ref; Main JK1010.P64, latest in Doe Ref-Govt/Stat)
2. Almanac of American Politics. Print and online (UC Berkeley only) nationaljournal.com/members/almanac/. Biennial. Profiles of U.S. Senate and House members. (IGSL Ref.; Main JK1021.A1 A45, latest in Doe Ref-Govt/Stat)
3. The Cook Political Report. Detailed coverage of Senate, House and gubernatorial elections. Excerpts (2004 onward) are included in the campaign coverage in National Journal Group's Policy Central. (Print version ceased Aug. 2003 — IGSL A9826).
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 (UC Berkeley only). Online web.lexis-nexis.com/congcomp/. Bill tracking, member profiles, voting records, campaign finance data, etc.
6. Congressional Report Cards (Accessible only from IGS Library). Online www.vis.org/crc/default.aspx. Database of interest group rankings.
7. 2008 Presidential Election. A sampling of blogs and other sites with continually updated campaign news:
   • Taegan Goddard's Political Wire. Online: http://www.politicalwire.com. Covers significant developments in national political news, with particular focus on major media and their coverage of presidential candidates.
   • CNN Political Ticker. Online: http://www.cnn.com/POLITICS/blogs/politicalticker/. Wire and other reports on national political developments, including outlines of presidential candidate schedules and listings of the top political stories of the day.
   • Real Clear Politics. Online: http://www.time-blog.com/real_clear_politics/. Weblog sponsored by TIME Magazine and CNN that has latest national political news developments and excellent summaries of latest national presidential voter preference polling.
   • The Caucus. Online: http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/. The main national political blog of the New York Times, the nation's "paper of record," includes presidential race handicapping by Times reporters and viewable video coverage of presidential campaigns.
   • The Fix. Online: http://blog.washingtonpost.com/thefix/. The main national political blog of the Washington Post features presidential race handicapping by Post reporter Chris Cillizza.
   • Hot Off the Trail. Online: http://washingtonbureau.typepad.com/election2008. The political blog of the McClatchy Washington Bureau, a mainstream news organization with a take on politics that's a bit more independent than the usual Beltway suspects.
   • FiveThirtyEight.
   Online: http://www.fivethirtyeight.com/2008/10/road-to-270-california.html. California electoral projections from a respected and widely-read new blog. The rest of the site reports on broader national data and reports on electoral trends.
8. 2010 California Gubernatorial Race. There are not a lot of candidate-specific resources on this topic yet, because most candidates have not yet declared. But for potential or hypothetical candidates, the following will be useful:
• California Target Book. Print. Detailed political analysis of state legislative and congressional candidates and districts. Supplemented with faxed and mailed updates. An indispensable resource for research on current and potential California candidates. (IGS Library Reference Desk)
• Official profiles of state legislators on the Web
• Assembly: www.assembly.ca.gov/acs/acsframeset7text.htm
• State Senate: www.sen.ca.gov/~newsen/senators/senators.htp
• Candidates who have already declared for the 2010 race
• John Garamendi. Democrat John Garamendi for Governor website and official Lieutenant Governor website.
• Steve Poizner. Republican Steve Poizner for Governor Exploratory Committee website and official State Insurance Commissioner website.
• Candidates who will probably declare for the 2010 race
• Dianne Feinstein.
Official U.S. Senate website.
• Bill Lockyer.
Official State Treasurer website.
• Gavin Newsom. Official City and County of San Francisco Mayor website.
• Jack O'Connell.
Official State Superintendent of Public Instruction website.
• Antonio Villaraigosa. City of Los Angeles Mayor official website.
• Candidates who may declare for the 2010 race
• Phil Angelides.
Angelides was the 2006 Democratic candidate against Arnold Schwarzenegger. His 2006 campaign website is still up (here) and his Apollo Alliance (clean energy coalition launched in 2004) board member bio is here.
• Debra Bowen.
Official Secretary of State website.
• Jerry Brown. Official Attorney General website.
• John Chiang.
Official State Controller website.
• Fabian Núñez. Núñez was Speaker of the Assembly from 2004 to 2008 and represents the 46th Assembly District (map). His official Assembly website is here.
• Jackie Speier.
Speier was an Assemblywoman for the 19th district (map) from 1986 to 1996 and a Senator for the 8th District (map) from 1998 to 2006. She ran for lieutenant governor in 2006. She was elected to fill the seat of late 12th Congressional District (map) representative Tom Lantos in April 2008. Her official website is here. Her 2008 campaign website is here.
• Steve Westly. Westly is not currently in public office, but he was State Controller from 2003 to 2007. He ran for governor in 2006 but was defeated in the primary by Phil Angelides. Westly's venture capital firm website is here.
• 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).
• The Green Papers. Online: http://www.thegreenpapers.com/. An excellent reference site with extensive summaries of upcoming election contests in most statewide offices and Congressional districts, including California.

C. District Maps and Profiles

1. Congressional Districts in the 2000s. Print. Narrative profiles with some statistical information. (IGSL Ref.; Doe Ref JK1341.C65 2003 Govt/Stat)
2. Congressional District Maps, National Atlas of the United States. Online: http://nationalatlas.gov/printable/congress.html. The National Atlas has prepared simple maps of each District of the 109th Congress (January 2005-January 2007). Designed for easy reference, they show the Congressional District overlaid on top of State and county boundaries along with interstate and US highways, selected streams and water bodies, and major cities.
3. California Assembly, Senate and Congressional Dictricts. Via the State Legislature. Includes both maps and demographic profiles of the districts.
• Assembly: www.assembly.ca.gov/committee/c7/asmfinal/newtextdocument.html
• State Senate: www.sen.ca.gov/ftp/SEN/senplan/senate.htp
• U.S. House:
  • www.sen.ca.gov/ftp/sen/cngplan/newtextdocument.htp
  • www.census.gov/geo/www/maps/cd108n/FF_cd108n_maps.htm#st06_cd108_3

D. Election Statistics and Campaign Finance

1. CQ Voting and Elections Collection (UC Berkeley only). Online library2.cqpress.com/elections/. Extensive database of election data for presidential, congressional and gubernatorial elections (search in "Gubernatorial Elections" section for more information).
2. 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.
3. PoliticalMoneyLine. Online http://moneyline.cq.com/pml/home.do. Major site for federal campaign finance data. Includes databases searchable by candidate name and donor.
4. 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.
5. Cal-Access: California Automated Lobbying and Campaign Contribution & Expenditure Search System. Online cal-access.ss.ca.gov/. Data for 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. 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.
6. 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.
7. Campaign Finance Information Center. Online: http://www.campaignfinance.org/states/index.html. Campaign finance information available in each state. Click on each state on the map to get to a page that lists the official online location for campaign finance data in each state (usually the secretary of state's office) and what information specifically each state provides.
8. The Money Race. Online: http://politics.nytimes.com/election-guide/2008/finances/index.html. A new graphic interface on the New York Times website. Provides financial data for all 18 declared major-party presidential candidates (including John McCain and Barack Obama), with information up to date through July 26, 2008. Includes details on how much each candidate raised (with location and date information for individual contributions over $200) and from what zip codes he or she raised the most cash.

E. News and Current Awareness Sources

1. Lexis-Nexis Academic (UC Berkeley only). Online http://www.lexisnexis.com/us/lnacademic/. 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 Sources, in the Find a Source search box enter “major us newspapers” in quotes. Select source in check box and click on OK to continue.
   To search newspapers in California select Sources, in the Find a Source search box enter “ california news sources” in quotes. Select source in check box and click on OK to continue.
   Set the Specify Date dropdown; the default is "All previous dates."
   Use the People tab to find profiles of incumbents and candidates.
2. Access World News (U.S. Newspapers) (UC Berkeley only). Online http://uclibs.org/PID/23120 . Full-text access to 300 U.S. newspapers, over 25 from California, including the Sacramento Bee from 1984 onward. Lexis-Nexis includes the Sacramento Bee only from Jan. 2002 onward.
3. ProQuest Newspapers (UC Berkeley only). Online http://proquest.umi.com/. Includes full-text access to the Los Angeles Times from 1985 onward.
4. The Hotline (UC Berkeley only). Online nationaljournal.com/pubs/hotline/. Daily. Key insider newsletter on national politics.
5. Rough & Tumble. Online www.rtumble.com/. "A daily digest on California politics."

F. Public Opinion Polls

1. Poll Track (UC Berkeley only). (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. Print. (UC Berkeley only). Online institution.gallup.com/. The latest Gallup polls, plus a 60-year database of Gallup polling data.
3. PollingReport.com:  pollingreport.com/. Up-to-date national polling. (Subscriber data including state polls accessible only from IGS Library). Also appears as a print newsletter, The Polling Report. About twice per month. (IGSL A7853)
4. Polling the Nations (UC Berkeley only). 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.
6. Dave Leip's Atlas of US Presidential Elections. Online:http://www.uselectionatlas.org/. Maps of US presidential elections; also has polling data links for gubernatorial and Senate races.
7. Electoral Vote Predictor 2006. Online:http://electoral-vote.com/. Covers Presidential elections but also has excellent interactive features for House and Senate races, including a downloadable Excel spreadsheet with polling data that is updated daily.
8. CNN America Votes 2006. Online: http://www.cnn.com/ELECTION/2006/. Has great midterm race analysis section with clickable map of key races.
9. Pollster.com. Online: http://www.pollster.com/blogs/. Excellent, in-depth, frequently updated poll blog about polls and poll mechanics.
10. Field Poll. Print. Online from Jan. 1993 field.com/fieldpollonline/subscribers/. Leading statewide California poll. IGS Library indexes the polls in the MELVYL catalog. (IGSL fA0468). Question-level data available online via the Social Sciences Data Collection at UC San Diego: gort.ucsd.edu/calpol/
11. Los Angeles Times Poll. Online at the LA Times www.latimes.com/news/custom/timespoll/, or via NewsBank or Lexis-Nexis Academic.
12. PPIC Statewide Surveys (Public Policy Institute of California). Print and online http://www.ppic.org/main/series.asp?i=12. Public opinion survey series on various topics. (IGSL A9849)

Remote Access to Proprietary Databases

The online resources in this guide marked (UC only) and (UC Berkeley only) are proprietary databases licensed for UC faculty, staff and student use only.If you are working from home and using a non-UC Berkeley ISP, you will be blocked from using these resources unless you access them via The Library's proxy server. For complete instructions on how to use the proxy server, go to:

http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/Help/proxy.html

The online resources in this guide marked (accessible only from IGS Library) are proprietary databases licensed to the IGS Library only. To use these resources, ask for assistance at the IGS Library reference desk.