Columbus City, IA is governed by a mayor-council form of government. The mayor serves as the head of the city and is elected by the citizens every four years. The council consists of three members who are also elected by the citizens to serve four year terms. The council is responsible for setting policy for Columbus City, approving the annual budget and establishing tax rates. They also appoint members of certain boards and commissions to help in their decision making process. All decisions made by the mayor and council must adhere to both state and local laws. Community engagement plays an important role in determining policy in Columbus City, IA with civic organizations working together to promote citizen involvement in local government activities such as voting on ballot initiatives and attending public meetings to voice concerns or speak up about issues that affect them.
The political climate in Columbus City, IA is moderately conservative.
Louisa County, IA is very conservative. In Louisa County, IA 32.4% of the people voted Democrat in the last presidential election, 65.6% voted for the Republican Party, and the remaining 2.0% voted Independent.
In the last Presidential election, Louisa county remained overwhelmingly Republican, 65.6% to 32.4%.
Louisa county voted Republican in 2020, 2016 and 2004, and Democratic in 2012, 2008 and 2000.
The BestPlaces liberal/conservative index
Columbus City, IA is moderately conservative.
Louisa County, Iowa is very conservative.
Iowa is leaning conservative.
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.
Columbus City, Iowa: d r d d R R
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 Columbus City, IA
In the last 4 years (2018-2021), there were 24 contributions totaling $1,087 to the Democratic Party and liberal campaigns, averaging $45 per contribution.
In the last 4 years, there were 65 contributions totaling $10,582 to the Republican Party and conservative campaigns, averaging $163 per contribution.
(source: Federal Election Commission)