The small town of Interlaken, CA is located in Monterey County and is home to a few hundred people. The town's local politics are managed by the City Council, which consists of five council members elected to two-year terms. The Council is responsible for making decisions about the municipal budget, setting policy, and overseeing city services. The mayor of Interlaken is elected to serve a two-year term as well. Interlaken also has a number of city commissions that work on issues such as public safety, parks and recreation, planning and zoning, among others. Local elections take place every two years, giving citizens the opportunity to have their voices heard on important matters that affect the community. Residents of Interlaken are passionate about civic engagement and take an active role in shaping the future of their town through participation in political campaigns and voting at the polls.
The political climate in Interlaken, CA is strongly liberal.
Santa Cruz County, CA is very liberal. In Santa Cruz County, CA 78.4% of the people voted Democrat in the last presidential election, 18.5% voted for the Republican Party, and the remaining 3.1% voted Independent.
In the last Presidential election, Santa Cruz county remained overwhelmingly Democratic, 78.4% to 18.5%.
Santa Cruz county voted Democratic in every Presidential election since 2000.
The BestPlaces liberal/conservative index
Interlaken, CA is strongly liberal.
Santa Cruz County, California is very liberal.
Santa Cruz-Watsonville 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.
Interlaken, 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 Interlaken, CA
In the last 4 years (2018-2021), there were 7,731 contributions totaling $634,725 to the Democratic Party and liberal campaigns, averaging $82 per contribution.
In the last 4 years, there were 686 contributions totaling $86,633 to the Republican Party and conservative campaigns, averaging $126 per contribution.
(source: Federal Election Commission)