The city of Petaluma, California is a vibrant and growing town located just thirty miles north of the San Francisco Bay area. It boasts an eclectic mix of restaurants, entertainment venues, arts and culture events, and shopping opportunities. The political landscape in Petaluma is as diverse as its population. There are two major political parties represented in the area: Democratic and Republican. The City Council consists of five members elected at-large who serve four year terms. Each cycle, local candidates from both the Democratic and Republican parties compete for these seats to represent their constituents on important issues such as housing affordability, public safety policies, economic development initiatives, environmental sustainability measures, and other matters related to local governance. This allows citizens to have a say in how their city is managed and helps ensure that all viewpoints are considered when making decisions about their community.
The political climate in Petaluma, CA is moderately liberal.
Sonoma County, CA is very liberal. In Sonoma County, CA 74.5% of the people voted Democrat in the last presidential election, 23.0% voted for the Republican Party, and the remaining 2.4% voted Independent.
In the last Presidential election, Sonoma county remained overwhelmingly Democratic, 74.5% to 23.0%.
Sonoma county voted Democratic in every Presidential election since 2000.
The BestPlaces liberal/conservative index
Petaluma, CA is moderately liberal.
Sonoma County, California is very liberal.
Santa Rosa-Petaluma 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.
Petaluma, 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 Petaluma, CA
In the last 4 years (2018-2021), there were 23,013 contributions totaling $1,059,265 to the Democratic Party and liberal campaigns, averaging $46 per contribution.
In the last 4 years, there were 814 contributions totaling $143,669 to the Republican Party and conservative campaigns, averaging $177 per contribution.
(source: Federal Election Commission)