Hillside, NJ is a small town with a strong and active political culture. The politics in this area are an important part of the community and residents take their civic duty to vote and participate in local elections very seriously. Every election cycle, residents are eager to hear what their local candidates have to say on the issues and how they plan to address them if elected. In recent years, the focus has been on improving infrastructure, increasing economic development opportunities, investing in public education, and reforming criminal justice policies. With a focus on these issues, Hillside's political environment strives to make sure that all citizens have an equal voice in shaping their future.
The political climate in Hillside, NJ is strongly liberal.
Union County, NJ is very liberal. In Union County, NJ 67.0% of the people voted Democrat in the last presidential election, 31.5% voted for the Republican Party, and the remaining 1.5% voted Independent.
In the last Presidential election, Union county remained overwhelmingly Democratic, 67.0% to 31.5%.
Union county voted Democratic in every Presidential election since 2000.
The BestPlaces liberal/conservative index
Hillside, NJ is strongly liberal.
Union County, New Jersey is very liberal.
New York-Newark-Jersey City Metro Area is strongly liberal.
New Jersey is somewhat 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.
Hillside, New Jersey: 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 Hillside, NJ
In the last 4 years (2018-2021), there were 3,574 contributions totaling $88,644 to the Democratic Party and liberal campaigns, averaging $25 per contribution.
In the last 4 years, there were 54 contributions totaling $21,452 to the Republican Party and conservative campaigns, averaging $397 per contribution.
(source: Federal Election Commission)