pvsR (version 0.1.1)

CandidateBio.getBio: Get a candidate's main biographical information

Description

This function is a wrapper for the CandidateBio.getBio() method of the PVS API CandidateBio class which grabs the main biographical information for each candidate. The function sends a request with this method to the PVS API for all candidate IDs given as a function input, extracts the XML values from the returned XML file(s) and returns them arranged in one data frame.

Usage

CandidateBio.getBio(candidateId)

Arguments

candidateId

a character string or list of character strings with the candidate ID(s) (see references for details)

Value

• A data frame with a row for each candidate and columns with variables describing the candidate. The returned data frame contains a row for each candidate and columns with the following variables describing the candidate: bio.candidate.crpId (OpenSecrets ID), bio.candidate.firstName, bio.candidate.nickName, bio.candidate.middleName, bio.candidate.lastName, bio.candidate.suffix, bio.candidate.birthDate, bio.candidate.birthPlace, bio.candidate.pronunciation, bio.candidate.gender, bio.candidate.family, bio.candidate.photo, bio.candidate.homeCity, bio.candidate.homeState, bio.candidate.education, bio.candidate.profession, bio.candidate.political, bio.candidate.religion, bio.candidate.congMembership, bio.candidate.orgMembership, bio.candidate.specialMsg, bio.office.parties, bio.office.title, bio.office.shortTitle, bio.office.name, bio.office.type, bio.office.status, bio.office.firstElect, bio.office.lastElect, bio.office.nextElect, bio.office.termStart, bio.office.termEnd, bio.office.district, bio.office.districtId, bio.office.stateId, bio.office.committee*.committeeId, bio.office.committee*.committeeName, bio.election*.office, bio.election*.officeId, bio.election*.officeType, bio.election*.parties, bio.election*.district, bio.election*.districtId, bio.election*.status, bio.election*.ballotName.

References

http://api.votesmart.org/docs/CandidateBio.html Use Candidates.getByOfficeState(), Candidates.getByOfficeTypeState(), Candidates.getByLastname(), Candidates.getByLevenshtein(), Candidates.getByElection(), Candidates.getByDistrict() or Candidates.getByZip() to get a list of candidate IDs.

Examples

# First, make sure your personal PVS API key is saved as character string in the pvs.key variable:
pvs.key <- "yourkey"
# get main biographical data on Barak Obama and Mitt Romney
bio <- CandidateBio.getBio(list(9490,21942))
bio