Portola Valley, California is a small town located in San Mateo County just west of Palo Alto with a population of roughly 4,500 people. It is known for its safety, excellent schools, and high quality of life. Politically, Portola Valley is part of the 22nd Congressional District and has state representatives from both the Democratic and Republican parties. At the local level, Portola Valley citizens elect members to the Town Council who are tasked with making decisions regarding public services including library services, police protection, recreational facilities and parks maintenance. The Town Council also works closely with local businesses to ensure that the community remains vibrant and progressive. In addition to the Town Council, there are several committees such as the Planning Commission and Parks & Recreation Commission that advise on important matters pertaining to land use policies and recreational activities in the area. Overall, Portola Valley is an active political community that works hard to maintain its high quality of life for all its citizens.
The political climate in Portola Valley, CA is moderately liberal.
San Mateo County, CA is very liberal. In San Mateo County, CA 77.9% of the people voted Democrat in the last presidential election, 20.2% voted for the Republican Party, and the remaining 1.9% voted Independent.
In the last Presidential election, San Mateo county remained overwhelmingly Democratic, 77.9% to 20.2%.
San Mateo county voted Democratic in every Presidential election since 2000.
The BestPlaces liberal/conservative index
Portola Valley, CA is moderately liberal.
San Mateo County, California is very liberal.
San Francisco-Oakland-Berkeley 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.
Portola Valley, 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 Portola Valley, CA
In the last 4 years (2018-2021), there were 12,018 contributions totaling $18,548,485 to the Democratic Party and liberal campaigns, averaging $1,543 per contribution.
In the last 4 years, there were 657 contributions totaling $1,064,917 to the Republican Party and conservative campaigns, averaging $1,621 per contribution.
(source: Federal Election Commission)