South Pasadena, California is a small city located in Los Angeles County with a population of just over 25,000 people. It is known for its quaint historic neighborhoods and iconic Mission-style architecture. The city has been an independent municipality since its founding in 1888 and is governed by a five-member city council who oversee local ordinances and regulations as well as the budgeting process. Among the issues on the agenda of South Pasadena are public safety, economic development, homelessness, and infrastructure. The local political scene in South Pasadena is dominated by two main political parties: The Democratic Party and Republican Party. Each party has their own slate of candidates to represent them who must be approved by the City Council before running for office. Candidates must have local knowledge and be committed to addressing the needs of the community while also representing their respective party’s values. Election time in South Pasadena generally brings out passionate debates about issues important to residents such as housing, traffic congestion, parking, crime prevention, environmental protection, and business promotions. As with other cities throughout California and across the United States, South Pasadena encourages citizens to participate in politics through various forms of civic engagement such as attending meetings or casting their ballots at election time.
The political climate in South Pasadena, CA is strongly liberal.
Los Angeles County, CA is very liberal. In Los Angeles County, CA 71.0% of the people voted Democrat in the last presidential election, 26.9% voted for the Republican Party, and the remaining 2.1% voted Independent.
In the last Presidential election, Los Angeles county remained overwhelmingly Democratic, 71.0% to 26.9%.
Los Angeles county voted Democratic in every Presidential election since 2000.
The BestPlaces liberal/conservative index
South Pasadena, CA is strongly liberal.
Los Angeles County, California is very liberal.
Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim 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.
South Pasadena, 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 South Pasadena, CA
In the last 4 years (2018-2021), there were 12,571 contributions totaling $1,881,314 to the Democratic Party and liberal campaigns, averaging $150 per contribution.
In the last 4 years, there were 868 contributions totaling $198,843 to the Republican Party and conservative campaigns, averaging $229 per contribution.
(source: Federal Election Commission)