Gustine, California is a small city located in Merced County. It has a population of about 4,000 people and is governed by a mayor-council form of government. The current mayor is Mark Strathmann who was elected to office in 2016. He is supported by the city council which consists of five members who are elected at-large to four-year terms. Local politics in Gustine are largely focused on public safety, economic development, infrastructure improvements, and recreational opportunities. Recently the mayor and city council have been working together to revitalize downtown areas to attract businesses and tourists. They have also been trying to improve the quality of local services such as parks and schools while still keeping taxes low. Additionally, they have made efforts to increase civic engagement by hosting meetings with the public allowing for more open discussion and feedback on issues affecting their community.
The political climate in Gustine, CA is somewhat liberal.
Merced County, CA is somewhat liberal. In Merced County, CA 53.8% of the people voted Democrat in the last presidential election, 43.3% voted for the Republican Party, and the remaining 2.9% voted Independent.
In the last Presidential election, Merced county remained strongly Democratic, 53.8% to 43.3%.
Merced county voted Democratic in the four most recent Presidential elections, after 2000 and 2004 went Republican.
The BestPlaces liberal/conservative index
Gustine, CA is somewhat liberal.
Merced County, California is somewhat liberal.
Merced Metro Area is somewhat 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.
Gustine, California: 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 Gustine, CA
In the last 4 years (2018-2021), there were 105 contributions totaling $15,531 to the Democratic Party and liberal campaigns, averaging $148 per contribution.
In the last 4 years, there were 40 contributions totaling $8,760 to the Republican Party and conservative campaigns, averaging $219 per contribution.
(source: Federal Election Commission)