DOI: 10.3886/icpsr22167
title: Washington Post District of Columbia Poll, July 2006
title: Archival Version

description: This special topic poll, conducted July 13-18, 2006, is part of a continuing series of monthly surveys that solicit public opinion on the presidency and on a range of other political and social issues. This poll surveyed 1,350 residents of the District of Columbia, including 1,013 registered voters. Residents were asked about their level of interest in the upcoming mayoral election and whether they were registered to vote. Registered Democrats were polled on the likelihood that they would vote in the Democratic primary election for mayor and DC city council chairman, for whom they would vote in these races, and how strongly they supported their candidates. Views were sought on the quality of life in the District of Columbia, the biggest problems facing the district, and the quality of local public schools and municipal services. Opinions were solicited on mayoral candidates Michael Brown, Linda Cropp, Marie Johns, Adrian Fenty, and Vincent Orange, how well Mayor Anthony Williams was handling his job, and the type of people who should be elected as the next mayor and city council chairman. Respondents were asked about the perceived level of safety in their neighborhood, the effect of immigration on their community, and their confidence in the district's ability to respond to a terrorist attack in the area. A series of questions addressed redevelopment efforts in the city, including which groups would benefit, the likelihood that it would force respondents to move out of their current neighborhood, whether they owned or rented their current residence, and the affordability of relocating within the city. Information was also collected on which ward respondents resided in, how often they voted in local elections, how long they had lived in Washington, DC, and whether anyone in their household was employed by the federal or city government. Additional topics addressed plans to build a stadium for the Washington Nationals baseball team, and whether the District of Columbia should become a voting member in the United States House of Representatives. Demographic variables include sex, age, race, household income, education level, presence of children in the household, political party affiliation, political philosophy, and voter registration status.
description: The data contain a weight variable (WEIGHT) that should be used in analyzing the data. The data were weighted using demographic information from the Census to adjust for sampling and nonsampling deviations from population values. Respondents customarily were classified into 1 of 48 cells based on age, race, sex, and education. Weights were assigned so the proportion in each of these 48 cells matching the actual population proportion according to the Census Bureau's most recent Current Population Survey.
description: Households were selected by random-digit dialing. Within households, the respondent selected was the adult living in the household who last had a birthday and who was home at the time of the interview.
description: Datasets: 
DS1: Washington Post District of Columbia Poll, July 2006
description: Persons aged 18 and over living in households with telephones in the District of Columbia.
description: telephone interview(1) The data available for download are not weighted and users will need to weight the data prior to analysis. (2) Additional information about sampling, interviewing, and sampling error may be found in the codebook. (3) Original reports using these data may be found via the Washington Post Opinion Surveys and Polls Web site. (4) System-missing values were recoded to -1. (5) The ZIP variable was recoded for confidentiality. (6) The variables PCTBLACK, PCTASIAN, PCTHISP, MSAFLAG, STCODE, CSA, CBSA, METRODIV, NIELSMKT, and ZIP were converted from character variables to numeric. Variables EDUBREAK, AGEBREAK, and RACENET were reformatted for use with online analysis. (7) Most survey questions in this poll were asked only of registered voters, as indicated in the data collection instrument. (8) The CASEID variable was created for use with online analysis.