DOI: 10.3886/icpsr03708.v3
title: New York Times New York State Poll, October 2002
title: Version 3

description: This special topic poll is part of a continuing series of
monthly surveys that solicit public opinion on the presidency and a
range of other political and social issues. The study was conducted in
part to assess respondents' interest in and opinions about the 2002
elections in the state of New York. Residents of that state were
asked to give their opinions of Governor George Pataki and his
handling of the governorship, the economy of New York, Pataki's
response to the attacks on the World Trade Center, and his
participation in the recovery efforts following the terrorist attacks.
Also elicited were views of Senators Hillary Rodham Clinton and
Charles Schumer, state comptroller H. Carl McCall, and New York City
mayor Michael Bloomberg. Those queried were asked whether they intended
to vote in the November 5, 2002, elections. Respondents were also
asked for whom they would vote if the election for governor were held
that day, given a choice between George Pataki (Republican Party),
H. Carl McCall (Democratic Party), and Tom Golisano (Independent
Party). Respondents were also asked which candidate cared more about
the needs of residents of New York City, residents of the suburbs,
residents of upstate New York, and of people like the respondent.
Those queried were asked to specify which candidate was more likely to
raise taxes, improve the state of the New York economy, help all the
people of New York, and help only special interest groups. Respondents
were also asked if Pataki and McCall were spending more time during
the campaign attacking each other or explaining what they would do if
elected. Respondents were asked to consider whether Pataki had made
progress in the following areas during his eight years in office:
improving public school education, reducing New York State's taxes,
improving the state's economy, creating jobs in New York State,
protecting the environment, and reducing the state's debt. They were
asked for whom they would vote if the election for state comptroller
were held that day, given a choice between John Faso (Republican
Party) and Alan Hevesi (Democratic Party). Likely voters were asked
whether a candidate's stance on keeping open the Indian Point Nuclear
Power Plant, located in Westchester, New York, would influence their
vote. Additional questions probed respondents' views on the
Rockefeller laws requiring mandatory sentences for drug offenses,
environmental protection, the quality of New York State public
schools, the influence of Blacks and Catholics in how the state of New
York was run, whether employees who worked in New York City and lived
elsewhere should be charged a commuter tax, whether state financial
aid to New York City was adequate, and the preferred solution to the
state's budget concerns. Those queried were asked for their views on
Bloomberg's tenure as mayor, specifically his record on crime compared
to that of his predecessor Rudolph Giuliani. Background information on
respondents includes age, gender, political party, political
orientation, voter registration and participation history, education,
religion, marital status, Hispanic descent, race, years in community,
household income, and whether they watched or listened to the October
13 gubernatorial debate.
description: A variation of random-digit dialing using primary sampling
units (PSUs) was employed, consisting of blocks of 100 telephone
numbers identical through the eighth digit and stratified by
geographic region, area code, and size of place. Within households,
respondents were selected using a method developed by Leslie Kish and
modified by Charles Backstrom and Gerald Hursh (see Backstrom and
Hursh, SURVEY RESEARCH. Evanston, IL: Northwestern University Press,
1963).
description: Datasets: 
DS1: New York Times New York State Poll, October 2002
description: Adult population of the state of New York aged 18 and over
having a telephone at home.
description: 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.The ASCII data file may have been replaced if the previous version was formatted with multiple records per case. A frequency file, which contains the authoritative column locations, has been added to the collection.