Codebook

Last Modified 22 July 1998

Representation
Codebook

Files:

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    format): reprcb.wpd

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CHAMBER Chamber


1 -- Senate

2 -- Assembly
DISTRICT District Number

DISTRICT
DATA

URBAN Percent
living inside urbanized areas
EURAMER Percent European
American
AFRAMER Percent African
American
ASNAMER Percent Asian
American/Pacific Islander
NATAMER Percent Native
American
LATINO Percent Latino
LT18 Percent under
18 years old
GE65 Percent 65
years old and older
MARRIED Percent of
households with married couple
MARCHLD Percent of
households with married couple and children under 18
HIGHSCH Percent of
persons 25 or older who are at least high school graduates
COLLEGE Percent of
persons 25 or older who are at least college graduates
PRCAPINC Per capita
income
POVERTY Percent of
persons living below poverty
OWNOCC Percent of
occupied houses that are owner-occupied
REGISTER Democratic
party registration as percent of two-party registration, October 1996
LEGVOTE Democratic
percent of two-party vote in legislative races. For assembly districts and
odd-numbered senate districts: November, 1996; for even-numbered senate
districts, November 1994. Note this variable should be used with caution
in analyzing the Senate, since the political environment in 1996 was quite
different from what it had been two years earlier. Also, in the 8th
SD, neither the Democratic nor Republican candidate was successful - the
race was won by an independent, Quentin Kopp. His votes are not included
in the data.
PROP209 Percent
Voting Yes on Proposition 209, the California Civil Rights Initiative, eliminating
a number of affirmative action programs, November 1996 (Passed)
PROP210 Percent
Voting Yes on Proposition 210, increasing the minimum wage, November 1996
(Passed)
PROP215 Percent
Voting Yes on Proposition 215, permitting the medical use of marijuana,
November 1996 (Passed)
PROP217 Percent
Voting Yes on Proposition 217, reinstating higher tax rates on upper income
taxpayers, November 1996 (Failed)
PROP218 Percent
Voting Yes on Proposition 218, making it harder for local governments to
raise taxes, November 1996 (Passed)
DISTLIB Composite
district liberalism (100 = most liberal; 0 = most conservative)

To create this variable, the first component was extracted from a principal
components factor analysis (carried out separately for the Assembly and
the Senate) of the results for the five statewide propositions included
in the study. To convert this score to a scale that would range from 0 to
100, the following formula was used:

 DISTLIB
=100* (FACTOR - C1)/C2, where:

    FACTOR = the
    district's principal component score,

    C1 = the minimum FACTOR score among all districts in the Assembly or Senate,
    and

    C2 = -C1 + the maximum FACTOR score.

MEMBER DATA

NAME Member's
Surname
PARTY Member's
Party

1 -- Democrat

2 -- Republican

3 -- Independent
TERMLIM Year
Member Reaches Term Limit
YEARBORN Year
Member Born
GENDER Member's
Gender

1 -- Male

2 -- Female
ETHNIC Member's
Ethnicity

1 -- European American

2 -- African American

3 -- Latino

4 -- Asian American

5 -- Native American
CHAIR Standing
Committee Chair

0 -- No

1 -- Yes
VCHAIR Standing
Committee Vice-Chair

0 -- No

1 -- Yes
ROLLCALL Composite
Roll Call Voting Score, 1997 (100 = most conservative; 0 = most liberal).
To create this variable, the first component was extracted from a principal
components factor analysis (carried out separately for the Assembly and
the Senate) of the ratings of several interest groups. To convert this score
to a scale that would range from 0 to 100, the following formula was used:

 ROLLCALL
=100* (FACTOR - C1)/C2, where:

    FACTOR = the
    member's principal component score,

    C1 = the minimum FACTOR score in the chamber, and

    C2 = -C1 + the maximum FACTOR score.

Senators Craven
and Dills and Assemblyman Caldera are not included because they missed a
number of votes and were not rated by several of the groups. 

The following
groups ratings were used: the California Chamber of Commerce, Gun Owners
of California, the California Taxpayers' Association, the California League
of Conservation Voters, the California Public Interest Research Group
(CALPIRG). Scores were as listed by each organization except as follows:

    CALPIRG did
    not rate Senator Ayala because he missed too many roll calls. Since all
    other groups rated him, we calculated his CALPIRG score based on the record
    he did have. The California Chamber of Commerce scores individual votes,
    but does not provide an overall rating. We computed ratings as the percent
    of votes or abstentions or absences favoring the Chamber's position. Excused
    absences were not included in the calculations.

Sources:

Social, economic,
and demographic characteristics of district: 1990 census.

Registration data:
Secretary of State, Report of Registration (October 1996).

District voting
data: Secretary of State, Statement of Vote (November 1996). For votes
on propositions, data appear to be incorrect for some senate districts, and
to not total correctly to statewide results. For this reason, data from assembly
districts were aggregated to the senate district level.

Year of birth and
term limit status, and committee chairs and vice chairs: A.G. Block and Claudia
Buck, California Politics Almanac 1997-1998 (Sacramento: State Net, 1997).
Note: The Almanac contained several omissions in its listing of chairs
and vice-chairs. The missing information was obtained from the web pages of
the assembly (http://www.assembly.ca.gov/)
and the senate (http://www.senate.ca.gov/)
on March 1, 1998. According to these sources, Ayala is vice-chair of the Senate
Agriculture and Water Resources Committee, Greene is vice-chair of the Senate
Legislative Ethics Committee, Johannessen is chair of the Senate Veterans Affairs
Committee, and Miller is vice-chair of the Assembly Budget Committee.



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