The Almanac of American Politics
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The Almanac of American Politics is a reference work published biennially by the National Journal Group. It aims to provide a detailed look at the politics of the United States through an approach of profiling individual leaders and areas of the country.
The Almanac is broken down alphabetically by state, with each congressional district in each state profiled separately. The Almanac provides a large amount of information, including:
- Demographic information on each district, including income, racial distribution, and other statistics.
- Profiles of the Congressperson from each district as well as each state's Senators, including voting record on key votes, interest group ratings, etc.; profiles of governors are also included.
- Individually written profiles of each district, commissioned for the Almanac.
In addition, an overview look at each state is given, including prospects for the upcoming presidential election and demographic trends.
The Almanac is several thousand pages long, and quite hefty, even in paperback. It was first published in 1972, and subsequent editions have appeared biennially since 1973. Originally, the three main editors were Michael Barone, now a writer at U.S. News and World Report, Grant Ujifusa and Douglas Matthews. Matthews did not contribute after the 1980 edition. The 2004 and 2006 editions were authored by Barone and Richard E. Cohen, the congressional correspondent for the National Journal, and edited by Charles Mahtesian.
