DOI: 10.3886/icpsr02725.v1
title: New York Times New York State Poll, March 1999
title: Version 1

description: This special topic poll, fielded March 8-14, 1999, queried residents of New York State on a range of political and social issues. Respondents were asked to give their opinions of President Bill Clinton, New York State Governor George Pataki, New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani, First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton, and political activist Al Sharpton. Respondents were queried about a hypothetical contest between Hillary Rodham Clinton and Rudolph Giuliani for the open New York senatorial seat in the year 2000. Topics covered whether Clinton and Giuliani should each run for the seat, respondents' preference in such a contest, and respondents' political party affiliation and orientation. Specifically, respondents were asked whether each potential candidate cared about people like the respondent and about people in New York City, the city suburbs, and upper New York State, and whether each potential candidate had the right kind of experience for the job and was capable of getting things done for New York. Opinions were also elicited on whether Mrs. Clinton had the legislative skills necessary for the job and whether she was identifiable as a New Yorker, and whether Mr. Giuliani had the right personality for the job and was appropriately identifiable as a Republican. Questions on a wide range of quality of life issues in New York City were also posed. Specifically, respondents were asked for their current assessment of crime, public education, the proposed use of school vouchers, and the state of race relations in the city. Queries were made as to how to deal with intoxicated drivers and scofflaw dog owners, and the ramifications of various suggested punishments. Views were also sought on the media's portrayal of New York City, and special attention was given to respondents' assessments of the Giuliani administration and its policies. Opinions were sought on police residency requirements, the need for racial diversity in police ranks, alleged police brutality, and perceived differences in police treatment afforded to different races. A series of questions addressed the February 4, 1999, shooting of New York City resident Amadou Diallo by New York City police officers. Topics covered respondents' awareness of and reaction to that case, and opinions regarding the police department, Mayor Giuliani, and Al Sharpton in the context of that case. Background information on respondents includes age, race, sex, religion, marital status, political party, political orientation, whether the respondent had ever been a victim of a crime in New York City, whether the respondent had a friend or relative working in the New York City Police Department, motor vehicle ownership, history of driving while intoxicated, dog ownership, age of children in household, type of school attended by children, voter participation history, and family income.
description: ICPSR data undergo a confidentiality review and are altered when necessary to limit the risk of disclosure. ICPSR also routinely creates ready-to-go data files along with setups in the major statistical software formats as well as standard codebooks to accompany the data. In addition to these procedures, ICPSR performed the following processing steps for this data collection: Created variable labels and/or value labels..
description: Datasets: 
 
 DS1: Dataset
description: (1) 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. (2) 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.