State Legislative Data

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Much of my research focuses on state legislative and judicial politics. With Kerry Haynie of Duke University and Beth Reingold of Emory University, I am involved in a NSF-funded project on the intersections of race, gender, and ethnicity. We are in the process of collecting data from 25 state legislatures, across 4 year intervals ending in 2005, regarding both background characteristics (sex, race, ethnicity, party affiliation, seniority, committee membership, and leadership positions), and bill characteristics (content of bill, disposition of bill, committee referral data, sponsorship data).

To request access to these biographical data, please email one of the co-PIs on this project: Kate Bratton (bratton@lsu.edu), Kerry Haynie (klhaynie@duke.edu), or Beth Reingold (polbr@emory.edu). We will continue to post updates on the timing of the release of the data.

I also have supplemental biographical data for several states and years. These data are linked below. The information varies a bit over states, but generally when complete, the set will include information on party affiliation, race, sex, ethnicity, occupational background, education, first year served, last year served, prior experience, committee assignment, and leadership position. Click here for a preliminary codebook. I will be updating these files (particularly regarding sponsorship and cosponsorship counts, and leadership / committee info) during the fall of 2009. These files are password protected; to request to use these data, please contact Stella Rouse at srouse@gvpt.umd.edu.

1. Arizona--Background data on legislators serving in 1999, 2003, and 2007.

2. Connecticut--Background data on legislators serving in 1991, 1995, 1999, and 2003.

3. Illinois--Background data on legislators serving in 1983, 1987, 1991, 1995, 1999, 2003, and 2007.

4. Nevada--Background data on legislators serving in 1983, 1987, 1991, 1995, 1999, and 2003.

5. New Mexico--Background data on legislators serving in 1991, 1993, 1995, 1997, 1999, 2001, 2003, 2005, and 2007.

6. Ohio--Background data on legislators serving in 1983, 1987, 1991, 1995, 1999, and 2003.

7. Texas--Background data on legislators serving in 1991, 1995, 1999, 2003, and 2007.

Click here for an updated file of legislators from 15 states (AR, AZ, CA, CO, FL, IL, LA, MD, MI, MS, NC, NJ, NM, SC, and TX), House and Senate, in 2001. (Here is a draft codebook.) These data (minus some relatively minor updates) were used in a 2007 LSQ paper with Michelle Barnello, "Bridging the Gender Gap in Bill Sponsorship."

Click here for stata code to transfer sponsorship files organized by bill to sponsorship files organized by legislator. And click here for stata code to count sponsored bills.