Congressional campaign study, 1978

The focus of this study is campaigns waged for election to the United States House of Representatives. A national sample of congressional districts in the continental United States in 1978 was chosen for investigation. The districts selected were those in which contested races were conducted for seats in the 96th Congress and in which interviewing for the American National Election Study of 1978 had occurred. The collection includes information obtained from personal interviews with the candidates' campaign managers, content analysis of newspapers in the districts, campaign expenditure data, and information about each district's makeup, history and recent electoral results. Four files comprise the collection. The first contains information acquired from interviews with the campaign managers of major party candidates in the 86 contested races. These interviews, conducted both before and after the election focused on the development and implementation of campaign strategy and resource allocation. In this file the candidacy is the unit of analysis, with matching information contained in each data record for the 167 candidates and their opponents. Included is information on perceptions