DOI: 10.3886/icpsr26164.v1
title: New York Times New York State Poll, June 2008
title: Version 1

description: This special topic poll, fielded June 6-11, 2008, is a 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. This poll focuses on the opinions of 1,062 residents of the state of New York, including 931 registered voters.
Respondents were asked for their opinions of David Patterson and whether they approved of the way he was handling his job as Governor of New York,
and for their opinions of the New York State Legislature in Albany and public officials such as United States
Senators Charles Schumer and Hillary Clinton, New York State Attorney General Andrew Cuomo, New York City Mayor
Michael Bloomberg, Nassau County Executive Thomas Suozzi, Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly,
Speaker of the New York City Council Christine Quinn, United States Representative Anthony Weiner, and former New York City Major Rudolph Giuliani.
Opinions were solicited on whether things in the state of New York and New York City were going in the right direction,
the condition of the New York State economy, which of New York State's problems respondents wanted Governor Patterson to concentrate on
the most, whether the State Senate and Assembly should be controlled by the same political party, whether respondents wanted to be living in
the same place in four years, and whether the Bloomberg Administration had done enough to balance the need for more safety in the construction
industry and the economic benefits of development.
Respondents were asked how much attention they had been paying to the 2008 presidential campaign, which candidate they would vote for
if the 2008 presidential election were being held that day, for their opinions of the 2008 presidential candidates and of former President Bill Clinton,
whether Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign was mostly positive, whether Hillary or Bill Clinton used race in an offensive way
during the course of her presidential campaign, and which candidate they voted for in the 2008 Democratic presidential primary.
Additional topics included corruption in New York State government, civil unions and New York State recognizing same-sex marriages performed
in other jurisdictions, racial issues concerning police use of deadly force and the 2006 case of Sean Bell,
respondents' financial situation, housing costs, term limits for city officials, and former Governor Eliot Spitzer's
involvement as a client in a prostitution ring.
Demographic information includes sex, age, race, education level, household income,
marital status, religious preference, frequency of religious attendance, type of
residential area (e.g., urban or rural), political party affiliation, political
philosophy, voter registration status and participation history, the presence of children
under 18 in the household, and what type of school respondents' children were enrolled in at that time (public or private).
description: The data contain a weight variable (WGHT) that should be used in analyzing the data. According to the New York Times Web site, the results have been weighted to take account of household size and the number of telephone lines into the residence, and to adjust for variations in the sample relating to region of the state: race, Hispanic origin, sex, marital status, age and education.
description: The New York State poll is based on telephone interviews with 1,062 respondents throughout the state, including 931 registered voters.
The sample of respondents was selected by a computer from a complete list of telephone exchanges across the state, each region of the state was represented in proportion to its population. For each exchange, the telephone numbers were formed by random digits, allowing for access to listed and unlisted numbers. One adult per household was designated by a random procedure to be the respondent for the survey.
Phone numbers were dialed from samples of both standard land-lines and cell phones. Interviews were conducted in either English or Spanish.
description: Datasets: 
DS1: New York Times New York State Poll, June 2008
description: Persons aged 18 and over living in households with telephones in the state of New York.
description: computer-assisted telephone interview (CATI)The data available for download are not weighted and users will need to weight the data prior to analysis.The CASEID variable was reformatted in order to make it a unique identifier.Value labels for unknown codes were added in variables Q48 and Q49.Variable Q8 contains truncated value labels. Code 38 in Q8 originally had a value label of The President/Bill Clinton/Leadership. This value label was assumed to be outdated and was changed to The President/Leadership so that it would refer to the president in office at the time of the survey. Truncated value labels in the variable EDUC were corrected.Interviews were collected in both English and Spanish, as indicated in the variable HISP.