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JOMC 491.3 Pathfinder
ONLINE NEWS WRITING and REPORTING
Ryan Thornburg

Researching Political Campaigns
in North Carolina
Barbara Semonche August 26, 2008

Campaign Finance:

• National Institute on Money in State Politics: Money in state politics plays a pivotal role in shaping public policy in individual states and across the nation. Tracks political donations in all 50 states.
   
• Congressional Quarterly -- CQ MoneyLine [Note: parts of this valuable resource are free; other parts are subscriber only.]
   
• Legislative Committee Analysis Tool (CAT) The CAT is a mashup of state legislative committee rosters and campaign donor data. It illustrates the intersection where campaign money and the laws that affect everyday life overlap.
   
• N. C. Campaign Finance Reports  Need to search for Reported Committee Transactions. Will demonstrate in class.
   
• Project VoteSmart! For details on Project VoteSmart, click on this link.

North Carolina Links:

• N. C. State Board of Elections Number of NC registered voters scrolls atop the screen.
   
• N. C. Elections Results  Includes data from general & primary elections -- 1992 to 2008. Data for precinct level can be downloaded.
   
• N.C. Voter Turnout (1972-2004 presidential races)
   
• N.C. County Election Data
   
• NC.Gov N.C. home page
   
• SouthNow  Demographics of newly registered N.C. voters. Click on tab to "Data & Research" for excel spreadsheets on elections
   
• N. C. Community Descriptions
   
• N. C. County Census Data
   
• N. C. County Profiles Includes economic & education status, vital statistics, population & housing, local government taxes & revenue and voter registration and election results
   
• N. C. Office of State Budget & Management  Economic facts & figures with analyses.
   
• N. C. Manual: 2006 (full text with charts, graphs, demographics, biographies with photos, political parties, election results, and N.C. historical information)

Political News:

• NewsLink  Links to U.S. newspapers by state and by name.
   
• Stateline.org  Politics and policy news and overviews, state-by-state.
   
• The New York Times -- Political Navigator NYT's guide to political sites on the web.
   
• Campaigns & Elections Print magazine located in Davis Library's serials department. Online access is via http://eresources.lib.unc.edu/eid Click on "I" for InfoTrac Onefile; select "Publications" from tab at top of screen and then type "Campaigns & Elections" in search box. On next screen, click on "Campaigns & Elections" and now you can search by topic or view current issues full text of C&E.
   
• Cook Political Report  State and national campaign and election analysis from National Journal veteran political reporter Charlie Cook.
   
• The Hill  The masthead reads: "The Newspaper for and about the U.S. Congress."
   
• Poynter Online's "Republican & Democratic Convention History (1856-2008)"
   

Polling Data:

• Ten Commandments of Polling
   
• Polling Report  An independent, nonpartisan resource on trends in American public opinion.
   
• Public Policy Polling [Note: PPP is a subscription service. Access is not available in Park Library or UNC campus . . . except . . .]
   
• Other Polling Sources on the Web Includes links to "The Tend Commandments of Polling," Carolina Pulse Poll, the Institute for Research in Social Science's Public Opinion Item Index, The Pew Research Center, The People & the Press, The Roper Center for Public Opinion Research, etc.
   
• Rasmussen Reports: Rasmussen Reports is an electronic publishing firm specializing in the collection, publication, and distribution of public opinion polling information. Enter "North Carolina" in the search box and retrieve recent relevant polls. [Note: The News & Observer uses this poll.]

Databases: http://eresources.lib.unc.edu/eid

• CQ Voting & Elections Collections  CQ (Congressional Quarterly) Voting and Elections Collection provides detailed voting data for the study of American politics, both past and present. Presidential, Senatorial, Congressional, and Gubernatorial candidates are covered, as are campaigns and elections, political parties, and voters and demographics. Data can be downloaded and manipulated to cover an individual's career, seat competition, party control, and party switches, among other aspects of American politics. The Collection also includes an encyclopedia, a calendar and chronology, and definitions and sources of the data. [Note: Some data pages are incomplete.]
   
• Lexis/Nexis Congressional Select "L" from the list, then click on "Lexis/Nexis Congressional." Follow search protocols. Will demonstrate in class. [Note: The Lexis/Nexis service for public records is not available to the Park Library or other UNC libraries. See ACCURINT below.]
   
• Issues & Controversies  In-depth investigation and anyalysis of major issues in the news. From Facts.com.
   
• CQ Researcher Online  Topical reports and studies on hot issues of the day. From Congressional Quarterly press.
   
• Marquis Who's Who on the Web
   

N.C. Candidates

• List of N.C. Candidates for 2008  Fifty page MSWord document or in an Excel spreadsheet.
   
• N. C. Candidates' Biographies Check political party web sites for individual candidates' names and bios.
   
• N. C. Incumbents' Voting Records

Legislative Directories

• Roll Call (U.S. Congress)
   
• N.C. General Assembly (Senators) Directory
   
• N.C. General Assembly (Representatives) Directory
   
• N.C. Directory of State & County Officials

Political Parties

• Democratic National Committee  Click on "Local" at top of screen to go to N. C. On the map, click on N.C. and then search the N.C. Democratic Party web site for candidates and bios or "stories."
   
• Republican National Committee Connect with the N. C. Republican Party
   
• Green Party  Click on link to "States" then click on the link to N. C. on the map.
   
• Libertarian Party  Click on the link to "States" then click on "North Carolina."
   
• American Reform Party  Click on link to "States"  then click on "North Carolina."

Public Records Access [Note: While our campus eresources do offer access to several electronic data sources, it does not offer access to Lexis/Nexis database of Public Records. The following list of public records electronic resources are available to our JoMC students.]

• Finding People: The Database of Sources on The Virtual Chase contains information about hundreds of resources for finding information about people.
   
• Legal Dockets Online: This subscription-based resource can save you a lot of time in locating civil and criminal court records. It also offers a free blog on timely issues affecting document retrieval.
   
• PACER: PACER (Public Access to Court Electronic Records) is electronic public access service that allows users to obtain case and docket information from Federal Appellate, District and Bankruptcy courts, and from the U.S. Party/Case Index. [Note: searching is free, but printing costs 8 cents per page. Also, there is only one password available. Check with Park Librarian.]
   
• CourtPort: CourtPort is a public records portal. Searchers can obtain court case information, property, recordings, liens, criminal, business, licensing/disciplinary, and people records. [Note: students must register to access the information. Click on the link to "Get Started" and select the "academic subscription." This is a new database and I'll demonstrate in class.]
   
• BRB's Free Resource Center: This resource provides a searchable list of free public record sites along with additional tools to locate sources for civil records, criminal records, driving records, real estate records, public record vendors, record retrievers, legislation and more. 
   
• Durham County Tax Department: I'll demonstrate this resource in class. Every N. C. county has such a department, but not all have electronic access.
   
• Accurint: [Note: access not available in Park Library or
  UNC campus] Accurint is a locate-and-research tool available to
  government, law enforcement, and commercial customers. Its
  proprietary data-linking technology includes such key features as: People search, Phone Plus, People at Work, Relavint, and Advanced Person Search. Accurint uses public records and non-public information. Accurint is a service of Lexis/Nexis.
   

• AutoTrackXP: [Note: access not available in Park Library or 
  UNC campus] Using as little information as a name, AutoTrackXP
  cross references such data as addresses, driver licenses, property
  deed transfers, corporate information, and more. This database
  unifies collected information into a single report. It can even access
  real-time phone listings and perform on-demand court record 
  searches. It is not a consumer reporting agency. Lexis/Nexis also
  bought ChoicePoint which manages AutoTrackXP  

• Public Records --  Search Engines: 

Pretrieve: Search thousands of official public record sites to find free court records, free criminal records, property records, and more. Find people, property, criminal and civil cases, and other background check information quickly, easily, and free.

Zaba Search: This controversial search engine provides basic contact information that it claims to obtain from public records.

ZoomInfo: This search engine crawls the Web and indexes information about business people.

Political Blogs (and columns)

• Washington Post's "The Fact Checker"
   
• The News & Observer's "Under the Dome" [Note: includes the PoliticFact.com's "Truth-O-Meter."]
   
• http://www.ncinsider.com/
   
• http://dome.newsobserver.com
   
• http://jackbetts.blogspot.com/
   
• http://blog.news-record.com/staff/capblog/
   
• http://www.wunc.org/programs/news/Isaac-Hunters-Tavern
   
• http://weblogs.jomc.unc.edu/talkpolitics/
   
• http://www.talkingaboutpolitics.com/
   
• http://bluenc.com/
   
• http://edcone.typepad.com/
   
• http://www.redclaycitizen.typepad.com/
   
• http://charlotte.johnlocke.org/blog/
   
• http://www.ncpolicywatch.com/
   

Online Newspapers & Resources

• N.C. Press Association's List of Online Newspapers
   
• Silobreaker: Silobreaker is a news aggregator. It offers free access to news items, video, data mapping and more.

N.C. Archived Newspapers (full text)

• America's Newspapers (Newsbank) Go to http://eresources.lib.unc.edu/eid/ Click on "A" and select "America's Newspapers. Click on the part of the map for N.C. Then follow search directions. I'll demonstrate in class.