THE NES 2002 AUXILIARY FILE: CONTEXTUAL DATA 

The NES 2002 time-series study (NES 2002 Pre-Post) was conducted through
special arrangements and funding, and in certain aspects is not typical.
Planning for the study encompassed some procedural considerations not 
standard for study staff, including the suggestion for addition of
staff-produced contextual data.  Unfortunately, very strict funding and 
time constraints have limited the scope and content of the resulting file,
however it is serviceable as a useful starting point for analysts who are
gathering contextual data.

The data have principally been retrieved from the following publically 
available sources:  VoteSmart, Congressional Quarterly, Congress.org, 
Boston Globe online candidate biographies, CNN candidate information,
THOMAS, Politics1, and candidate Web sites, together with miscellaneous
publically released data available in news source content.

The core of the contextual variables are the biographical variables for
the Democratic and Republican candidates and retiring incumbents.
Due to time constraints, certain of these variables have not been recoded
to devised numeric schemes but contain descriptive text, for example,
CNN occupational descriptions and names of higher-educational institutions. 
In general, for the format of this data file is less highly processed than
typical NES study data.

Among the biographical variables, considerable time was spent on
identification of candidate's race, and for incumbents racial identification
was based on self-identification as provided to Congressional Quarterly.
Military service was particularly prone for absence in information sources
but what could be found has been included.

Candidate variables V024500a-V024536 from the 2002 Pre-Post file are also
present in this file, including variables for candidate gender. 


V021201- V021202c  State and district identification
V024500a-V024536   NES Pre-Post candidate variables
V026001a-V026019   Democratic candidate biographical variables
V026021a-V026039   Republican candidate biographical variables
V026041a-V026059   Other candidate biographical variables
V026061a-V026079   Retiring incumbent biographical variables
V026101 -V026109c  Percentages -Incum Pres and party support, voting partic
V026110a-V026111b  Democratic, Republican incumbent party ranks; first elected
V026200 -V026202u  Incumbent committee membership
V026301a-V026317b  1999, 2000 CQ Incumbent ratings by special interest groups
V026401 -V026412   Incumbent votes on specific issues 106th Congress (CQ) 

