DOI: 10.3886/icpsr02664
title: CBS News/New York Times New York State Poll #2, October 1998
title: Archival Version

description: This special topic poll, fielded October 21-25, 1998,
 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, Democratic
 gubernatorial candidate Peter Vallone, Liberal Party gubernatorial
 candidate Betsy McCaughey Ross, Independent Party gubernatorial
 candidate Thomas Golisano, New York State Senator Alfonse D'Amato,
 Democratic senatorial candidate Charles Schumer, and the United States
 Congress. Predictions were sought on the outcomes of the upcoming
 November 1998 New York gubernatorial and senatorial
 elections. Respondents were asked who they supported in the state
 comptroller race between Democrat H. Carl McCall and Republican Bruce
 Blakeman, and in the state attorney general race between Democrat
 Eliot Spitzer and Republican Dennis Vacco. Respondents' opinions were
 sought on a variety of issues, including a ban on the sale of
 handguns, the New York State economy, and abortion. Given the choice
 between D'Amato and Schumer, respondents were asked which candidate
 best represented their views on honesty, abortion, crime, and
 political orientation. Respondents were also asked to rate the
 strength of their support for their senatorial candidate, to assess
 whether the candidates had spent more of their campaign resources
 outlining their platforms or attacking their challengers, and to
 comment on how Schumer's record for missing votes affected their
 voting decision, whether D'Amato had been in office too long, the
 accuracy of the televised campaign ads, and whom they would rather have
 in the Senate to vote on a possible Clinton impeachment trial. Given
 the choice between Vallone and Pataki, respondents were asked which
 candidate best represented their views, integrity, and political
 orientation. Respondents were also asked to describe the impact that
 Vallone's ads in defense of Clinton had had on their electoral
 decision-making. In addition, respondents were asked to compare the
 1992 senatorial race between D'Amato and Democratic challenger Robert
 Abrams to the 1998 senatorial race in terms of negative
 campaigning. Those queried were asked for their opinions on Clinton's
 relationship with former White House intern Monica Lewinsky, and
 whether Clinton should be censured or impeached, whether he should
 resign, or whether the United States Congress should drop the matter
 entirely. Background information on respondents includes age, race,
 sex, education, religion, political party, political orientation,
 voter registration and participation history, marital status, family
income, financial situation, and computer and Internet access.
description: Datasets: 
DS1: CBS News/New York Times New York State Poll #2, October 1998
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.