DOI: 10.3886/icpsr02724
title: ABC News/Washington Post Poll, March 1999
title: Archival Version

description: This monthly poll, fielded March 11-14, 1999, is part of a
 continuing series of monthly surveys that solicit public opinion on
 the presidency and on a range of other political and social issues.
 Respondents were asked for their opinions of President Bill Clinton,
 Vice President Al Gore, their state's governor, the United States
 Congress, First Lady Hillary Clinton, Texas governor George W. Bush,
 former Red Cross president Elizabeth Dole, former New Jersey Senator
 Bill Bradley, former Vice President Dan Quayle, Arizona Senator John
 McCain, former Tennessee governor Lamar Alexander, multimillionaire
 publisher Steve Forbes, and conservative commentator Pat
 Buchanan. Respondents were asked to assess the importance of a
 political candidate's stance on a variety of issues as well as which
 party is best able to handle those issues. Topics included crime, the
 economy, foreign affairs, the middle class, moral values, Medicare,
 the environment, partisanship, and tolerance. Those queried were asked
 whether they believed the 1994 switch of congressional balance to the
 Republican party had been a good or a bad thing. Given possible 2000
 presidential races between Democratic hopefuls Gore and Bradley and
 Republican hopefuls Bush and Dole, respondents were asked for whom
 they would vote. Those queried were also asked for whom they would
 vote in a Republican primary or caucus consisting of Bush, Dole,
 Quayle, Buchanan, Forbes, Alexander, McCain, Family Research Council
 president Gary Bauer, Ohio Congressman John Kasich, radio talk show
 host Alan Keyes, and New Hampshire Senator Bob Smith. They were also
 asked for whom they would vote in a Democratic primary or caucus
 consisting of Gore, Bradley, and Reverend Jesse Jackson. Respondents
 were asked whether the following characteristics made them more or
 less likely to vote for a candidate for president: the candidate is a
 woman, has used cocaine, has smoked marijuana, has never before held
 elected office, is an environmentalist, has cheated on a spouse, has
 lived and/or worked in Washington, DC, most of his/her life, has been
 accused of improper campaign fundraising, supports legalized abortion,
 was once a heavy drinker, and/or is supported by labor unions. A
 series of questions addressed the situation in Kosovo, including
 whether United States vital interests were at stake in the region,
 whether the United States should bomb Serbia if Serbia did not agree
 to a peace plan for Kosovo, and whether the United States and Europe
 should use ground forces to enforce a peace treaty. Additional topics
 covered the state of the nation's economy, possible uses for the
 federal budget surplus, respondent enthusiasm for a 2000 presidential
 race between Gore and Bush, and the 2000 congressional
 elections. Background information on respondents includes age, race,
 sex, education, religion, political party, political orientation,
 voter registration and participation history, and labor union
membership.
description: Datasets: 
DS1: ABC News/Washington Post Poll, March 1999
description: (1) The data are provided as an SPSS portable
 file. (2) This collection has not been processed by ICPSR staff. ICPSR
 is distributing the data and documentation for this collection in
 essentially the same form in which they were received. When
 appropriate, hardcopy documentation has been converted to
 machine-readable form and variables have been recoded to ensure
 respondents' anonymity. (3) The codebook is provided as a Portable
 Document Format (PDF) file. The PDF file format was developed by Adobe
 Systems Incorporated and can be accessed using PDF reader software,
 such as the Adobe Acrobat Reader. Information on how to obtain a copy
 of the Acrobat Reader is provided through the ICPSR Website on the
Internet.