The People
Group Ratings
National Journal Ratings
Election Results
Campaign Finance
Key Votes

The following guide provides a brief description of each section and a list of sources from which information was derived, both of which serve as a road map to understanding the meaning behind the figures. Some of the data will be updated regularly on the Almanac website. For information on how to subscribe to this free service, please see the insert card toward the middle of the book.

Data in each category below is generated for The Almanac of American Politics by Polidata from data compiled by the United States Census Bureau, unless otherwise noted. Figures released by the Census may vary slightly from those used by the Almanac due to different methods of data aggregation or tabulation.

The People
Population. All population figures, excluding voter registration, are from the Census Bureau, www.census.gov. Official April 1, 2000 Census figures are used for each state.

Area Size. Area size is in square miles, including water.

State Native. Refers to persons born in their state of residence as a % of all persons.

Non-Citizen. Refers to persons foreign born and not a citizen as a % of all persons.

Language. Refers to the % of households speaking that language. The abbreviation Other Eur. refers to Other Indo-European languages.

Race and Ethnic Origin. For the 2000 Census, the Census Bureau asked people what their race or ethnic origin was. Race, as defined by the Census, reflects the individual respondent's perception of his or her racial identity and does not reflect any biological or anthropological definition. The basic racial categories are: American Indian or Alaska Native (designated in the box as Native Am.); Asian; Native Hawaiian or other Pacific Islander (Hawaiian); Black or African American; White; Two or more races (Two + races); Other non-Hispanic persons (Other). The race statistics used in the Almanac are drawn from respondents reporting only one race category, but the book also includes a total for those who responded to more than one race category. Hispanic origin is defined as an ethnicity, and includes those who classified themselves in one of three specific Hispanic categories (Cuban, Mexican, Puerto Rican) or as of "other Spanish/Hispanic origin." Persons of Latino or Hispanic origin may be of any race for Census purposes, but the Almanac includes only non-Hispanic Blacks in the Black population category and only non-Hispanic Whites in the White population category, so that the percentages add to 100%. The figures in the box are as a % of all persons in a state or congressional district.

Ancestry. Ancestry refers to ethnic origin or descent; categories are drawn from Census-designated possible groups. The question was intended by the Census to provide data for groups that were not included in the Hispanic origin and race questions; thus it does not reflect diversity within Hispanic and Asian subgroups. The % figure is calculated by using the average number of responses to estimate the % of the population that shares this ancestry characteristic. NOTE: The USA designation refers to "American" as a unique ethnicity, if it was provided alone as a response without any other ethnicity. Subsaharan refers to the Census category of Subsaharan African. West Indian excludes Hispanic groups.

Military Veterans. Refers to persons who were in the Armed Forces previously as a % of voting age persons. Gulf War % includes all veterans with service after 1990, but does not include those who also served in Vietnam.

Urban/Rural Population. Refers to the % of total population that lives in areas defined as urban or rural by the Census Bureau.

Education. H.S. Grad refers to persons with a high school diploma or higher, as a % of persons 25 years and older. College Grad refers to persons with a bachelor's degree or higher, as a % of persons 25 years and older.

Industry. Refers to industry of occupation. The figure is of persons employed by that particular industry as a % of employed persons 16 years or older. Abbreviations: Agri (agriculture, forestry, fishing and mining); Con (construction); Fin (finance, insurance and real estate); Info (information); Mfg (manufacturing, durable and non-durable); Prof (professional and related services, including health and education); Public (public administration); Trade (trade, wholesale and retail); Other (primarily entertainment, recreation, hotel and food services).

Occupation. Refers to type of job within industry. The figure is the % of employed persons 16 years and older in these occupations. White collar refers to management, professional, sales and administrative occupations. Blue collar refers to construction, production and transportation occupations. Gray collar refers to the balance of employed persons not classified as white or blue collar, such as farming, fishing and forestry or health care, protective service, food prep and personal care occupations.

Work Sector. Refers to a classification of worker by economic sector. The figure is the % of employed persons 16 years and older. Abbreviations: Private (private for profit/not for profit wage/salary employers); Govt (federal, state and local government); Self (self-employed); Family (unpaid family workers).

Unemployment. Unemployed civilians as a % of persons 16 years and older and as a % of the labor force.

Household Income/Poverty Status. Household Income refers to household income in 1999, as a % of all households. Poverty status refers to % of persons below the poverty line.

Home Value. Refers to self-estimated market value of owner-occupied units as % of owner-occupied housing units for which value was specified.

State Information. Each legislature is referred to according to the proper name of its legislative body, followed by a breakdown by party membership.

Legislative Term Limits. Refers to whether a state has term limits for state legislators.

Registered Voters. Refers to the number of registered voters by party, as close as possible to the November 2002 election. The individual states' election bureaus or political parties provide these figures. Some states have no voter registration. D refers to Democrat; R refers to Republican; I refers to independent, unaffiliated and minor parties.

Cook Partisan Voting Index. Refers to the Partisan Voting Index (PVI) as used by Charlie Cook, Washington's foremost political handicapper. The PVI is designed to provide a quick overall assessment of generic partisan strength. For this volume, the PVI includes only the 2000 presidential election as the partisan indicator. The PVI value is calculated by a comparison of the district percentage for the party nominee, compared to the national value for the party nominee. Based upon the two-party vote, the national values for 2000 are Bush 49.7% and Al Gore 50.3%. The positive value indicates a district with a partisan base above the national value for that party's 2000 presidential nominee. Thus a district with an R+15 is a district that voted 15 percentage points higher for George W. Bush than the national value of 49.7%. Similarly, a district with a D+15 is a district that voted 15 percentage points higher for Al Gore than the national value of 50.3%. An X +00 indicates an evenly balanced district.

Biography. This section lists when each governor, senator and representative was elected or appointed, date and place of birth, home, college education and degrees obtained (if any), religion, marital status and, if applicable, spouse's name. The number of terms listed reflects full, elected terms. Also listed is a brief outline of the politician's past elected offices, professional career and military service and his or her office addresses and telephone numbers. Committee and subcommittee assignments, as of June 3, 2003, are provided as well. (Note: On many committees, the chairman and ranking minority member are ex officio members of each subcommittee on which they do not hold a regular assignment.)

Ratings
Group Ratings. The congressional rating statistics of 11 interest groups provide an idea of a legislator's general ideology and the degree to which the legislator represents different groups' interests. Not just a record of liberal/conservative voting behavior, these ratings come from a range of groups concerned with everything from single issues (environmental concerns) to the political interests of a particular sector (e.g., business). The order of the groups is such that the more "liberal" groups are on the left and the more "conservative" are on the right. Five groups, ACLU, ITIC, NTLC, CON and CHC provide one rating for the two-year congressional session. Following is a general description of each organization.

ADA - Americans for Democratic Action
   Liberal: Since its founding in 1947, ADA members have pushed for legislation designed to reduce inequality, curtail rising defense spending, prevent encroachments on civil liberties and promote international human rights. The ADA uses a broad spectrum of issues for its vote analysis.

ACLU - American Civil Liberties Union
   Pro-individual liberties: ACLU seeks to protect individuals from legal, executive and congressional infringement on basic rights guaranteed by the Bill of Rights. The ACLU ratings are published for every Congress; the 2002 ratings include the years 2001 and 2002.

AFS - American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME)
   Liberal labor: As the nation's largest public employee and health care workers union, representing more than 1.3 million members, AFSCME is committed to achieving dignity and improving working conditions through collective bargaining. The AFSCME voting records are based on a representative sample of roll call votes from the First and Second Sessions of the 107th Congress.

LCV - League of Conservation Voters
   Environmental: Formed in 1970, LCV is the national, non-partisan arm of the environmental movement. LCV works to elect pro-environmental candidates to Congress. LCV ratings are based on key votes concerning energy, environment and natural resource issues.

CON - Concord Coalition
   Pro-balanced budget: The Concord Coalition is a nonpartisan, grassroots organization dedicated to eliminating the federal budget deficit and reforming entitlement programs. The Coalition, with members and active chapters in all 50 states, is determined to educate the American public about the dangers of the federal deficit.

ITIC - Information Technology Industry Council
   High technology industry: ITIC represents the leading U.S. providers of information technology products and services. ITIC's mission is to help shape policies that advance electronic commerce, open new markets, rely on market-based solutions, and foster innovation.

NTU - National Taxpayers Union
   Pro-taxpayer rights: NTU is the nation's largest and oldest taxpayers' rights group, representing 300,000 members in all 50 states. NTU analyzes every roll call vote taken during both sessions of Congress that significantly affects federal taxes, spending, debt, or regulatory impact.

COC - Chamber of Commerce of the United States
   Pro-business: Founded in 1912 as a voice for organized business, COC represents local, regional and state chambers of commerce in addition to trade and professional organizations.

ACU - American Conservative Union
   Conservative: Since 1971, ACU ratings have provided a means of gauging the conservatism of members of Congress. Foreign policy, social and budget issues are their primary concerns.

NTLC - National Tax-Limitation Committee
   Pro-tax limitation: NTLC was organized in 1975 to seek constitutional and other limits on taxes, spending and deficits. These ratings are based on budget issue votes and bills that would have a major impact on long-term government taxing and spending programs.

CHC - Christian Coalition
   Conservative: Pro-family citizen organization and national lobby founded in 1989 working for family-friendly public policy on a local, state and national level with over 1.5 million members.

National Journal Ratings
National Journal's rating system establishes an objective method of analyzing congressional voting. A panel of National Journal editors and staff initially compiled a list of congressional roll call votes and classified them as either economic, social or foreign policy-related. The interrelationship of these votes was shown by a statistical procedure called "principal components analysis," which revealed which "yea" votes and which "nay" votes fit a liberal or a conservative pattern. The votes in each of the three subject areas were computer-weighted to reflect the degree they fit the common pattern. All members of Congress who participated in at least half of the votes in each area received ratings; those who missed more that half the votes were not scored (shown as *). Absences and abstentions were not counted.

Members of Congress were then ranked according to relative liberalism and conservatism. Finally, they were assigned percentiles showing their rank relative to others in their chamber. Percentile scores range from a minimum of 0 to a maximum of 99. Because some members voted liberal or conservative on every roll call, however, there are ties at the liberal and conservative ends of each scale. For that reason, the maximum percentiles often turn out to be less than 99.

Election Results
Listed for each member of the House are results of the 2002 general, runoff and primary elections, as well as the 2000 general elections (results of any special elections are also listed). Gubernatorial and senatorial results are presented in a like manner. Votes and percentages are included, indicating the margin of victory (due to the process of rounding up and rounding down, some totals may equal more or less than 100%). Candidates receiving less than 4% of the total vote are grouped together and listed as "Other." Election returns were collected from the individual states. Where a state abbreviation and district number appear in parenthesis next to an election year, this indicates that the member ran in a differently numbered congressional district that year.

Prior Winning Percentage. This feature provides winning percentage of the vote in past elections; in Senate profiles, the word "House" indicates the election that year was for the U.S. House. If no percentage is provided for an election year, it indicates that the member lost or did not run for reelection that year; generally this will occur where there has been a gap in service. An odd election year (e.g. 1989) indicates a special election; two elections in the same year indicate a special and a general election.

Presidential Vote. The 1996 and 2000 presidential vote is included for each state. Results of the presidential primaries were provided by the states; caucus results are not provided. Due to redistricting, 1996 presidential vote results are unavailable for all 435 congressional districts. The 2000 presidential vote, however, is included here for each congressional district. It has been recompiled to reflect the presidential vote within the new district lines in effect for the 2002 election. Presidential vote by congressional district is estimated by Polidata, from political databases used in the 2001-2002 redistricting cycle in a number of states. Political stakeholders frequently use previous election results to assess the partisan base of proposed districts. However, unlike census datasets, which are developed by one entity, delivered in a standard format and available for each census block, these political databases are produced by different entities in each state, each of which may use different standards. In most cases these data were distributed to the census blocks based upon a population factor. In this manner, whenever a census block was assigned to a district, a certain number of estimated votes were carried with the block. It is from aggregations of the votes for the census blocks that the estimates for the districts were made. While estimates of votes are included, the percentage values generally provide the more reliable information. The votes for minor party candidates are included where available but are not consistent across all 50 states. The total of the congressional district votes may not add up to the total state vote, because some votes (overseas, military and some absentee and early votes) are not assigned to a congressional district.

Campaign Finance
All data are derived from candidates' campaign finance reports and party reports available from the Federal Election Commission (FEC). The dollar figure, in parentheses to the right of the election results, represents the candidates' net disbursements (expenditures) for the period beginning January 1, 2001, and ending December 31, 2002. These figures may not include candidate loans that have been repaid, nor does it include any corrections or amendments filed with the FEC after May 2003.

Key Votes
The Key Votes section attempts to illustrate a legislator's stance on important votes where he or she must vote for or against a national issue. The process grossly oversimplifies the legislative system where months of debate, amendment, pressure, persuasion, and compromise go into a final floor vote. However, the voting record remains the best indication of a member's general ideologies and position on specific issues. Following is a list of key votes used. A member who was absent, voted present, or who was not in office at the time of a particular vote receives an "*". Roll-call data were drawn from Congressional Observer Publications at www.proaxis.com/cop, a private legislative tracking company.

House Votes, 107th Congress:

1. Approve Bush Tax Cuts (HR 1836) Approve conference report for $1.35 trillion in tax cuts. May 26, 2001. (240-154) (D: 28-153; R: 211-0; I: 1-1)

2. Limit Patients' Bill of Rights (HR 2563) Limit non-economic damages for liability awards in the patients' rights proposal. Aug. 2, 2001. (218-213) (D: 3-206; R: 214-6; I: 1-1)

3. Campaign Finance Reform (HR 2356) Reform campaign finance laws to eliminate most uses of soft money, raise contribution limits, and impose limitations on pre-election advertising targeted at candidates. Feb. 14, 2002. (240-189) (D:198-12; R: 41-176; I: 1-1)

4. Ban ANWR Development (HR 4) Maintain existing protection of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge by striking language in the bill that repeals the prohibition against energy development in ANWR. Aug. 1, 2001. (206-223) (D: 171-36; R: 34-186; I: 1-1)

5. Faith-Based Charities (HR 7) Permit federal incentives for social services provided by religious organizations. July 19, 2001. (233-198) (D:15-193; R: 217-4; I: 1-1)

6. Bar Gays in the Boy Scouts (HR 2944) Bar funds for the District of Columbia to enforce anti-discrimination ruling against the Boy Scouts for expelling two gay Scouts. Sept. 25, 2001. (262-152) (D: 54-143; R: 207-8; I: 1-1)

7. Ban Partial-Birth Abortion (HR 4965) Ban what foes describe as "partial-birth" abortion, with criminal penalties for those who perform the procedure. July 24, 2002. (274-151) (D: 65-141; R: 208-9; I: 1-1)

8. Arm Commercial Pilots (HR 4635) Permit commercial airplane pilots to carry firearms and use force during a flight. July 10, 2002. (310-113) (D: 102-102; R: 206-11; I: 2-0)

9. Trade Promotion Authority (HR 3005) Extend "trade promotion authority" for the president to negotiate international trade agreements. Dec. 6, 2001. (215-214) (D: 21-189; R: 194-93; I: 0-2)

10. Bar Funds for Intl. Court (HR 4546) Bar funds for the International Criminal Court. May 10, 2002. (264-152) (D: 59-143; R: 204-8; I: 1-1)

11. Authorize Force in Iraq (HJRes 114) Authorize the use of U.S. military force against Iraq. Oct. 10, 2002. (296-133) (D: 81-126; R: 215-6; I: 0-1)

12. Deny Home. Sec. Dept. Union (HR 5005) Permit the president to deny employees of the Homeland Security Department from joining a union if their membership might jeopardize national security. July 26, 2002. (229-201) (D: 11-198; R: 217-2; I: 1-1)

1. Approve Bush Tax Cuts (HR 1836) Cut taxes by $1.35 trillion over 10 years. May 23, 2001. (62-38) (D: 12-38; R: 50-0)

2. Expand Patients' Rights (S 1052) Expands patients' rights in dealing with insurers and health maintenance organizations. June 29, 2001. (59-36) (D: 50-0; R: 9-35; I: 0-1)

3. Campaign Finance Reform (HR 2356) Reform campaign finance laws to eliminate most uses of "soft money," raise contribution limits, and impose limitations on pre-election advertising targeted at candidates. March 20, 2002. (60-40) (D: 48-2; R: 11-38; I: 1-0)

4. Permit ANWR Development (S 517) Cloture motion to end debate on proposal to allow oil and gas development in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. April 18, 2002. (46-54) (D: 5-45; R: 41-8; I: 0-1)

5. Confirm Ashcroft as AG Confirm John Ashcroft as Attorney General. Feb. 1, 2001. (58-42) (D: 8-42; R: 50-0)

6. Bar Gays in the Boy Scouts (S 1) Permit education funds to be withheld from schools that prohibit the Boy Scouts from using their facilities. June 14, 2001. (51-49) (D: 8-42; R: 43-6; I: 0-1)

7. $ for Hate Crime Prosecution (S 625) Cloture motion to end debate on a proposal to prosecute hate crimes. June 11, 2002. (54-43; failed to receive required 60 votes) (D: 49-1; R: 4-42; I; 1-0)

8. Overseas Military Abortions (S 2514) Provide access to abortion services for U.S. military personnel and their dependents stationed overseas. June 21, 2002. (52-40) (D: 46-2; R: 5-38; I: 1-0)

9. Bar Coop. With Intl. Court (HR 3338) Prohibit U.S. cooperation with the planned International Criminal Court. Dec. 7, 2001. (78-21) (D: 32-19; R: 46-2)

10. Trade Promotion Authority (S 3009) Extend "trade promotion authority" for the president to negotiate trade agreements. May 23, 2002. (66-30) (D: 24-25; R: 41-5; I: 1-0)

11. Authorize Force in Iraq (HJRes 114) Authorize the use of U.S. military force against Iraq. Oct. 11, 2002. (77-23) (D: 29-21; R: 48-1; I: 0-1)

12. Homeland Sec. Dept. Union (HR 5005) Cloture motion on proposal to limit debate on proposal for Homeland Security Department, excluding presidential authority to bar employees from union membership for national security reasons. Oct. 1, 2002. (45-52) (D: 42-6; R: 2-46; I: 1-0)

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