DOI: 10.3886/icpsr07293.v1
title: American Representation Study, 1958: Candidate and Constituent, Incumbency
title: Version 1

description: This dataset belongs to a three-part study on American
 representation conducted shortly before and after the 1958
 congressional election (see also AMERICAN REPRESENTATION STUDY, 1958:
 CANDIDATES [ICPSR 7226] and AMERICAN REPRESENTATION STUDY, 1958:
 CANDIDATE AND CONSTITUENT, PARTY [ICPSR 7292]). The survey
 administered to the candidates was designed to elicit information on
 what they considered to be the most important issues of the campaign,
 their views on these issues, and their perceptions of the positions of
 their constituents. The candidates were also asked what influenced
 them, and what they felt influenced the outcome of the
 campaign. Derived measures calculate 85th Congress roll-call scores on
 social welfare, foreign involvement, and civil rights issues.
 Roll-call data and information on committee activities of the
 congressmen are also provided. The combined candidate and constituent
 files (this collection and ICPSR 7292) contain the same candidate
 information as in ICPSR 7226, but are structured around the district
 as unit of analysis. This data collection provides candidate and
 constituent data organized by incumbency status of candidates, while
 ICPSR 7292 is organized by party identification of the candidates. In
 addition to the survey information on the candidates, this collection
 contains data on constituents taken from the 1956, 1958, and 1960
 AMERICAN NATIONAL ELECTION STUDIES (ICPSR 7214, 7215, and 7216) for
 114 of the 146 districts. Demographic information on candidates
 includes sex, race, year of birth, size of birthplace, highest
 graduate degree, prior occupations, public offices previously held,
 several indices of spatial mobility, religious preference, and ethnic
background.
description: The sample was drawn from the 187 districts partly or
 entirely included in the Survey Research Center's sampling frame for
 AMERICAN NATIONAL ELECTION STUDY, 1958 (ICPSR 7215). From multiple
 stratification within self-representing and non-self-representing
 primary sampling units, a total of 151 districts and 285 candidates
 were selected for inclusion in this study. For a response rate of 88
percent, 251 candidates from 146 districts were actually interviewed.
description: Datasets: 
DS1: American Representation Study, 1958: Candidate and Constituent, Incumbency
description: Incumbents to the 85th United States House of
 Representatives, their opponents, any third candidates
 associated with the 1958 congressional elections, and constituents
from 114 electoral districts.
description: 1) Sixty-five districts from self-representing primary
 sampling units (PSUs) and six from non-self-representing PSUs were
 weighted four times. The remaining 80 districts, all from
 non-self-representing PSUs, were weighted seven times. The weights
 produce a sample reflecting the distribution of congressmen and
 congressional candidates throughout the United States. The 251
candidates were weighted to 1,364. 2) The codebook is provided by ICPSR 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 Adobe Acrobat Reader. Information on how to obtain a copy of the Acrobat Reader is provided on the ICPSR Web site.