The Links (4/16/09): Data, Data Everywhere

Over the short course of the week that has been, there have been some nice sources of data released.

Pew has a great data set out now on the role of the internet in the 2008 campaign. Good to see that FHQ was one of the...

"Nearly one in five (18%) internet users posted their thoughts, comments or questions about the campaign on an online forum such as a blog or social networking site."

Open Secrets has now gone open source, opening up their rich data on money in campaigns. I've downloaded the 2008 expenditure data, but haven't had time to delve too deeply into it.

That goes for the new Cook Partisan Voting Index (PVI) numbers for the 111th Congress as well. I've got those numbers and the 110th as well and would like to do a more in-depth comparison of the changes than the folks at the Cook Report have provided. Not that there's anything wrong with that. What they don't give us in tabular form, they do provide in a nice map, though. And around here, maps remedy everything.

And to put my own (aided) contribution in, I've put together the daily Google Trends data for the top ten GOP candidates for 2012 (FHQ's Elite Eight plus Bobby Jindal and Ron Paul). I'll have something up regarding this data sooner than the others, but they all give us some data to look at in the meantime; data I'll be able to revisit at some point.

Thanks to DocJess over at DemConWatch for the Cook PVI link.


Recent Posts:
Now Obama's Fighting Climate Change Reform?

2008 GOP Candidate Emergence, Part 3

GOP Going the Caucus Route in Oklahoma in 2012?

2008 Presidential Candidate Visits by State and Party

I don't know that I set out initially to put data directly up on this site, but since I've been looking into the candidate visits data from the 2000 and 2004 primary seasons (see here and here), I thought I might also look into the availability of similar data for 2008. The great thing about the 2008 cycle -- other than it being fantastic overall -- was that there was no shortage of data collection going on. The drawback in many cases was that it wasn't cataloged in a way that could naturally be transferred into a spreadsheet for the type of analyses I like to do. One case of this was the fabulous candidate tracker (with maps!) Slate.com ran during the primaries. The problem with Map the Candidates was that, despite the great documentation, there was only individual candidate aggregation of visits and not party by party visit tabulations. Easily remedied, right?

Well, that's what I've tried to provide below:



Let me add a few notes:

1. Only visits where there was an "active" competition going on were counted. That does include the Republican primaries after McCain wrapped up the nomination on March 4, but only because those contests were still scheduled to happen. In other words, there was some, albeit small, draw for the candidate(s) there. This also includes Democratic caucuses past their initial steps. Both Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton showed up at the North Dakota State Democratic Convention in early April, for instance, after the initial caucuses took place on February 5. Those visits count. The two candidates were seeking delegates. GOP contests of a similar ilk were not included (though Ron Paul supporters tried to and in some cases did overrun some of those state conventions).
2. I highlighted the top 5 states overall and for each party. The key is at the bottom of the spreadsheet. Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina (in that order) were the top three draws overall and for both parties. Florida was fourth overall and in terms of GOP visits. The half-delegation penalty by the Republican Party did not have an impact on Florida's share of attention and overall the Sunshine state was not terribly negatively affected by the Democrats stripping the state of its entire delegation for a period. Michigan wasn't hurt too badly either; garnering the fifth slot in the percentage of GOP visits. California drew that distinction overall, while Pennsylvania claimed the final spot for the Democrats. The rules mattered in this regard for the Democratic Party. All four exempt states -- Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina and Nevada -- placed one through four (Nevada was fourth), while the two penalized states -- Florida and Michigan -- fell much further back.
   

Interesting stuff that I'll have to come back to at some point. Maybe another projection could emerge?


Recent Posts:
Should Indiana Frontload in 2012? (Part Two)

Michael Steele by the Numbers

GOP Temporary Delegate Selection Committee for 2012