Gubernatorial Campaign
Finance Law Coding Information
All data were drawn from the
Federal Election Commission’s Campaign Finance Law series of
publications. If you have particular
concerns about a given variable and/or year, we encourage you to refer to the
relevant hard copy of the publication.
In all cases, 1=yes and 0=no. However, please note that in many cases the coding of “1”
is replaced by more specific text explanation in the cell.
State Laws Regarding Gubernatorial Campaign Filing Deadlines
30-60 days before election, and 7-29 days before election:
Coded 1 if required for either primary or general elections, or both.
Late
donations trigger special report:
Coded 1 if late donations trigger a requirement to file a special report. This is regardless of the number of days
before an election defined as “late” (e.g. “2 days before”; “after last
reporting period”; “between 2 and 6 days before election”).
Filing within 30 days after an election:
Coded 1 for either primary or general election, or both. Filing
requirements that were not clearly within 30 days after were coded no (anything
from 35 days after, to something like, “3rd Thursday of second month after
election).
Quarterly:
If it was
not specified in the FEC material that a report was required only for
election or non-election years, we assumed that any quarterly filing
requirement referred to both election years and non-election year, and thus in
these cases we coded this variable 1 for both election years and
non-election years. This was the majority of “1” codes. Also
(perhaps quite obviously), if reports were due roughly every 3 months, coded
1.
Semi-annual in non-election years:
Once again, if it was not specified in the FEC material that a report was
required only for either election or non-election years, we assumed that
any quarterly filing requirement referred to both election years and
non-election year, and thus in these cases we coded this variable 1 for both
election years and non-election years.
Annually in non-election years:
Same as semi-annual coding. No distinction was made between “supplemental
reports” and mere “reports.”
State Laws Regarding Gubernatorial
Campaign Expenditure Limits
If a state
has a law, it is listed in the appropriate cell. The only exception to
this occurs in the early years covered by the dataset, where laws themselves
were referenced in the charts — in this case an abbreviated version was given
without reference to specific section, sub-section, etc.
State Laws Regarding Contributions by Individuals
Please note
that laws regarding spousal contributions usually specify that a spouse may
make unlimited contributions; otherwise, spouses are subject to the same
contribution limits as any other individual.
State Laws Regarding Contributions by Organizations
All columns
— Coded 1 if there are any limits on contributions to a gubernatorial candidate
or relevant candidate committee. Generally listed verbatim in relevant
sections. In some cases the wording was condensed or paraphrased, if it
was possible without loss of clarity.
State Laws Regarding Election Funding:
Tax Provisions and Public Financing
Entered as listed in the original FEC Campaign Finance
Law charts. Years 1978 and 1981 had the final column (Distribution of
Funds) removed, as the charts for those years were not in the same
format.