Palo, IA is a small town located in Linn County. Although it may be considered a rural community, the politics of Palo is still important to its residents. With local elections taking place every few years, the people of Palo have the opportunity to choose their elected officials and shape their own future. The current mayor of Palo is Mary Smith, who has held office since 2017 and has worked hard to improve the quality of life for all residents. In addition to the mayor, there are several other elected representatives on the city council that work together to make decisions that affect the whole community. As Palo continues to grow and expand, its citizens will continue to play an important role in determining its future political landscape.
The political climate in Palo, IA is leaning conservative.
Linn County, IA is somewhat liberal. In Linn County, IA 55.6% of the people voted Democrat in the last presidential election, 41.9% voted for the Republican Party, and the remaining 2.5% voted Independent.
In the last Presidential election, Linn county remained strongly Democratic, 55.6% to 41.9%.
Linn county voted Democratic in every Presidential election since 2000.
The BestPlaces liberal/conservative index
Palo, IA is leaning conservative.
Linn County, Iowa is somewhat liberal.
Cedar Rapids Metro Area is leaning liberal.
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.
Palo, Iowa: 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 Palo, IA
In the last 4 years (2018-2021), there were 29 contributions totaling $3,132 to the Democratic Party and liberal campaigns, averaging $108 per contribution.
In the last 4 years, there were 9 contributions totaling $1,120 to the Republican Party and conservative campaigns, averaging $124 per contribution.
(source: Federal Election Commission)