The city of Pontiac, MI is the county seat for Oakland County and has a long history of political involvement. The current mayor of Pontiac is Deirdre Waterman and she was elected in 2019 to serve the city. The city has been actively involved in politics since its 1818 incorporation, with several major political reforms passing through the municipal government over time. Some of these include initiatives to improve public transportation, combat poverty, and increase business investment in the area. The city council is made up of nine members that are elected every four years by popular vote. Additionally, there are special elections held occasionally for particular positions on the council and other local offices such as school board members. In recent years, Pontiac has seen an uptick in voter engagement with citizens showing up to the polls to make their voice heard on key issues facing the community.
The political climate in Pontiac, MI is moderately liberal.
Oakland County, MI is somewhat liberal. In Oakland County, MI 56.2% of the people voted Democrat in the last presidential election, 42.2% voted for the Republican Party, and the remaining 1.5% voted Independent.
In the last Presidential election, Oakland county remained strongly Democratic, 56.2% to 42.2%.
Oakland county voted Democratic in every Presidential election since 2000.
The BestPlaces liberal/conservative index
Pontiac, MI is moderately liberal.
Oakland County, Michigan is somewhat liberal.
Detroit-Warren-Dearborn Metro Area is somewhat liberal.
Michigan 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.
Pontiac, Michigan: 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 Pontiac, MI
In the last 4 years (2018-2021), there were 8,429 contributions totaling $1,769,259 to the Democratic Party and liberal campaigns, averaging $210 per contribution.
In the last 4 years, there were 1,758 contributions totaling $1,574,700 to the Republican Party and conservative campaigns, averaging $896 per contribution.
(source: Federal Election Commission)