Lower Swatara, PA is a small town located in south central Pennsylvania with a population of just over 6,000 people. The town is governed by a five-member Board of Supervisors which oversees local government operations. Lower Swatara operates under the mayor-council form of government where the board appoints a Mayor and four Council Members to serve two year terms. Elections are held every two years in November and current members of the Board include Tyler Longenecker as Mayor and Ray Barnes, Brad Cramer, Deb Mowery, and Brett Shiffler as Council Members. The town also has an active political landscape with several local candidates running for office each election cycle. Political issues in Lower Swatara often center on development projects, local zoning laws, public safety initiatives, and fiscal responsibility for the Town budget.
The political climate in Lower Swatara, PA is leaning liberal.
Dauphin County, PA is somewhat liberal. In Dauphin County, PA 53.4% of the people voted Democrat in the last presidential election, 44.9% voted for the Republican Party, and the remaining 1.7% voted Independent.
In the last Presidential election, Dauphin county remained moderately Democratic, 53.4% to 44.9%.
Dauphin county voted Democratic in the four most recent Presidential elections, after 2000 and 2004 went Republican.
The BestPlaces liberal/conservative index
Lower Swatara, PA is leaning liberal.
Dauphin County, Pennsylvania is somewhat liberal.
Harrisburg-Carlisle Metro Area is leaning conservative.
Pennsylvania 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.
Lower Swatara, Pennsylvania: r r 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 Lower Swatara, PA
In the last 4 years (2018-2021), there were 2,895 contributions totaling $192,932 to the Democratic Party and liberal campaigns, averaging $67 per contribution.
In the last 4 years, there were 685 contributions totaling $151,587 to the Republican Party and conservative campaigns, averaging $221 per contribution.
(source: Federal Election Commission)