I am pleased to announce the public release of the Database on Ideology,
Money in Politics, and Elections (DIME). The database was initially
developed as part of the project on Ideology in the Political Marketplace,
which is an on-going effort to conduct a comprehensive mapping of the
ideology of political elites, interest groups, and donors using the
common-space CFscore scaling methodology. (For details, see Bonica, Adam.
"Mapping the Ideological Marketplace." Forthcoming, American Journal of
Political Science. Available at http://ssrn.com/abstract=2148801). It
includes records for over 100 million political contributions made by
individuals and organizations to local, state, and federal elections
spanning a period from 1979 to 2012. A corresponding database of candidates
and committees provides additional information on state and federal
elections. In addition, the database includes common-space ideal points for
a comprehensive set of candidates for state and federal office, interest
groups, and individual donors.
Information about the project, files for download, and documentation are
available at http://data.stanford.edu/dime/.
The database is intended as a general resource for researchers interested
in American politics. A core objective in constructing the database was to
make data on campaign finance and elections (1) more centralized and
accessible, (2) easier to work with, and (3) more versatile in terms of the
types of questions that can be addressed. To these ends, considerable
effort has gone into compiling, cleaning, and augmenting the data. In
making the database public, I hope to provide a valuable resource to fellow
researchers. A list of the main value-added features of the database is
below:
Data processing: Names, addresses, and occupation and employer titles have
been cleaned and standardized.
Unique identifiers: Entity resolution techniques were used to assign unique
identifiers for all individual and institutional donors included in the
database. The contributor IDs make it possible to track giving by
individuals across election cycles and levels of government.
Geocoding: Each record has been geocoded and overlayed onto congressional
districts. The geocoding scheme relies on the contributor IDs to assign a
complete set of consistent geo-coordinates to donors that report their full
address in some records but not in others.
Ideological measures: The common-space CFscores allow for direct distance
comparisons of the ideal points of a wide range of political actors from
state and federal politics. In total, the database includes ideal point
estimates for 51,572 candidates and 6,408 political committees as
recipients and 13.7 million individuals and 1.3 million organizations as
donors.
Corresponding data on candidates, committees, and elections: The recipient
database includes information on voting records, fundraising statistics,
election outcomes, gender, and other candidate characteristics. All
candidates are assigned unique identifiers that make it possible to track
candidates even if they campaign for different offices. The database also
includes entries for PACs, super PACs, party committees, leadership PACs,
527s, state ballot campaigns, and other committees that engage in
fundraising activities.
Adam Bonica
Assistant Professor
Department of Political Science
Stanford University
Encina Hall West, Room 308
Phone: (650) 725-7987
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