Montecito, California is a small but affluent town located in Santa Barbara County. With a population of just over 8,500 people, Montecito is home to some of the most exclusive neighborhoods in the United States. Politically, Montecito remains a conservative stronghold with many of its residents voting Republican in state and federal elections. While there are no local political candidates, there are still a number of important issues that affect the community such as taxes, public safety, and environmental protection. Montecitians often voice their opinions on these matters through county-wide meetings hosted by local government officials as well as actively participating in local ballot measures during elections.
The political climate in Montecito, CA is somewhat liberal.
Santa Barbara County, CA is very liberal. In Santa Barbara County, CA 64.5% of the people voted Democrat in the last presidential election, 32.6% voted for the Republican Party, and the remaining 2.8% voted Independent.
In the last Presidential election, Santa Barbara county remained overwhelmingly Democratic, 64.5% to 32.6%.
Santa Barbara county voted Democratic in every Presidential election since 2000.
The BestPlaces liberal/conservative index
Montecito, CA is somewhat liberal.
Santa Barbara County, California is very liberal.
Santa Maria-Santa Barbara Metro Area is very liberal.
California is strongly 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.
Montecito, California: d d D D 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 Montecito, CA
In the last 4 years (2018-2021), there were 21,369 contributions totaling $5,243,577 to the Democratic Party and liberal campaigns, averaging $245 per contribution.
In the last 4 years, there were 1,746 contributions totaling $1,866,804 to the Republican Party and conservative campaigns, averaging $1,069 per contribution.
(source: Federal Election Commission)