The city of Buford, GA is governed by a mayor-council government system. The mayor and council members are elected at-large, meaning that all qualified citizens within the city may vote in their elections. The current mayor is Phillip Beard, who has been in office since 2017. The City Council is composed of six members who each serve four-year terms. Council meetings are held every first and third Tuesday of the month. At these meetings, the City Council discusses various topics of importance including infrastructure development, public safety initiatives, economic development projects and budget items. They also have committees that work on specific issues such as grants management, public works and parks and recreation. Additionally, Buford has an appointed City Manager who oversees day to day operations and executes decisions made by the Mayor and Council. Working together this team of elected officials strives to make Buford a great place to live for its residents while maintaining fiscal responsibility.
The political climate in Buford, GA is somewhat liberal.
Gwinnett County, GA is moderately liberal. In Gwinnett County, GA 58.4% of the people voted Democrat in the last presidential election, 40.2% voted for the Republican Party, and the remaining 1.4% voted Independent.
In the last Presidential election, Gwinnett county remained very strongly Democratic, 58.4% to 40.2%.
Gwinnett county voted Democratic in 2020 and 2016, after voting Republican in the previous four elections.
The BestPlaces liberal/conservative index
Buford, GA is somewhat liberal.
Gwinnett County, Georgia is moderately liberal.
Atlanta-Sandy Springs-Alpharetta Metro Area is moderately liberal.
Georgia is leaning liberal.
The BestPlaces liberal/conservative index is based on recent voting in national elections, federal campaign contributions by local residents, and consumer personality profiles.
VoteWord™
Displaying 20 years of Presidential voting, visualized in one word.
Buford, Georgia: R R R r d D
How It Works:
Here at BestPlaces, we were looking at the voting patterns since the 2000 election and realized that we could express the results of each election as one letter. R if the Republican Party candidate won, D if the Democratic Party candidate won and I if the Independent Party candidate won. The six elections (2000, 2004, 2008, 2012, 2016, 2020) would be expressed as six-letter word (R R D R R).
Then we went a little further and added the dimension of magnitude. If the difference of victory was greater than 10 percent, the letter is upper case, and lower case if the difference was less than 10 percent. This allows us to see interesting voting patterns at just a glance.
Here's the VoteWord for Iowa d r d d r. In the last six elections the state has been closely contested, voting narrowly for the Republican Party candidate in 2016 and 2020 after voting for the Democratic Party in 2008 and 2012. Virginia (r r d d d D) has voted for the Democratic Party in the last three elections.
Individual Campaign Contributions in Buford, GA
In the last 4 years (2018-2021), there were 3,018 contributions totaling $163,206 to the Democratic Party and liberal campaigns, averaging $54 per contribution.
In the last 4 years, there were 2,340 contributions totaling $574,617 to the Republican Party and conservative campaigns, averaging $246 per contribution.
(source: Federal Election Commission)