pvsR (version 0.1.1)

Officials.getByOfficeTypeState: Get a list of officials according to office type and state

Description

This function is a wrapper for the Officials.getByOfficeTypeState() method of the PVS API Officials class which grabs a list of officials according to the office type and state they represent. The function sends a request with this method to the PVS API for all state and office type 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

Officials.getByOfficeTypeState(stateId="NA",
    officeTypeId)

Arguments

stateId

(optional) a character string or list of character strings with the state ID(s) (default: "NA") (see references for details)

officeTypeId

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

Value

• A data frame with a row for each official and columns with variables describing the official. The returned data frame contains a row for each official and columns with the following variables describing the official: candidateList.candidate*.candidateId, candidateList.candidate*.firstName, candidateList.candidate*.nickName, candidateList.candidate*.middleName, candidateList.candidate*.lastName, candidateList.candidate*.suffix, candidateList.candidate*.title, candidateList.candidate*.electionParties, candidateList.candidate*.officeParties, candidatelist.candidate*.officeStatus, candidateList.candidate*.officeDistrictId, candidateList.candidate*.officeDistrictName, candidateList.candidate*.officeTypeId, candidateList.candidate*.officeId, candidateList.candidate*.officeName, candidateList.candidate*.officeStateId.

References

http://api.votesmart.org/docs/Officials.html Use State.getStateIDs() to get a list of state IDs. See http://api.votesmart.org/docs/semi-static.html or use Office.getTypes or Office.getOfficesByLevel to get a list of office types ID(s).

Examples

# First, make sure your personal PVS API key is saved as character string in the pvs.key variable:
# Note that some officeTypeIds are only available on the state level or national level
# (e.g. "L" for State Legislature only if stateId is specified!)
pvs.key <- "yourkey"
# get a list of officials by state and office type
CAlegislators <- Officials.getByOfficeTypeState(officeTypeId="L", stateId="CA")
CAlegislators
suprcourt <- Officials.getByOfficeTypeState(officeTypeId="J")
suprcourt