DOI: 10.3886/icpsr03285
title: Washington Post Virginia State Poll, August 2001
title: Archival Version

description: This special topic poll, conducted August 19-23, 2001, was
 designed to assess respondents' views on the upcoming November 6,
 2001, Virginia gubernatorial election and the state of affairs in
 Virginia. Virginia residents were asked to give their opinions of
 President George W. Bush, Virginia governor Jim Gilmore and his
 handling of the governorship, Republican candidate Mark Earley,
 Democratic candidate Mark Warner, and Virginia's Republican and
 Democratic parties. Respondents were asked whether they were paying
 attention to the campaign, whether they intended to vote in the
 election, and for whom they would vote given a choice among Earley,
 Warner, and Libertarian candidate William Redpath. Views were sought
 on which candidate would work to hold taxes down, look out for the
 interests of people like the respondent, strengthen the state's
 economy, say anything to get elected, and improve transportation and
 the roads, and which candidate was best qualified to be governor. A
 series of questions addressed the campaign issues and the candidates'
 positions on those issues, including the importance of education,
 eliminating the Virginia state car tax, holding down taxes, improving
 transportation and roads, improving public education, strengthening
 the state economy, addressing gun control, and addressing
 abortion. Respondents were asked whether they preferred a governor who
 would move the state in a new direction or keep things the way they
 were, was a successful businessman, had been endorsed by the National
 Rifle Association (NRA), was willing to spend his own money on the
 campaign, was strongly supported by conservative Christian groups,
 and/or had experience as an elected official. Additional topics
 covered whether northern Virginia residents had too much influence in
 state politics, whether respondents were upset that the Virginia
 legislature adjourned earlier in the year without passing a budget,
 how increased numbers of immigrants had affected their community,
 whether the administration of Standards of Learning (SOL) tests in
 Virginia schools should continue, and whether the death penalty was
 used fairly in Virginia. Background information on respondents
 includes age, gender, political party, political orientation, voter
 registration and participation history, employment status, marital
 status, education, religion, military service, children in household,
 average commute time, size of city of residence, household gun
 ownership, Hispanic origin, household income, length of Virginia
 residency, whether the respondent lived inside the "Beltway," and
 whether the respondent was employed by the "dot.com" (technology)
industry.
description: Datasets: 
DS1: Washington Post Virginia State Poll, August 2001
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, documentation has been converted to Portable Document
 Format (PDF), data files have been converted to non-platform-specific
 formats, and variables have been recoded to ensure respondents'
 anonymity. (3) 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 the Adobe Acrobat Reader. Information on how to obtain a copy
of the Acrobat Reader is provided on the ICPSR Web site.