Charleston, NY is a small rural town located in the Catskills region of upstate New York. Despite its size, Charleston has been an active political area throughout its history. Locally, the town is served by a Mayor/Supervisor and six members of the Town Board who work together to make decisions on behalf of the community's best interests. The Board meets regularly to discuss local issues as well as state and federal matters that impact the town's residents. Additionally, there are several other organizations in Charleston such as the Civic Association and Chamber of Commerce which help provide input on relevant topics or represent their members' interests. There are several civic-minded individuals in Charleston who volunteer their time for various causes or serve on boards and committees in order to further benefit the community. Therefore, it can be said that politics plays an important role in Charleston and its citizens are committed to making sure that their voices are heard when it comes to decision-making.
The political climate in Charleston, NY is strongly conservative.
Montgomery County, NY is moderately conservative. In Montgomery County, NY 37.7% of the people voted Democrat in the last presidential election, 60.2% voted for the Republican Party, and the remaining 2.1% voted Independent.
In the last Presidential election, Montgomery county remained overwhelmingly Republican, 60.2% to 37.7%.
Montgomery county voted Republican in the last five Presidential elections, after voting Democratic in 2000.
The BestPlaces liberal/conservative index
Charleston, NY is strongly conservative.
Montgomery County, New York is moderately conservative.
Amsterdam Metro Area is moderately conservative.
New York is moderately 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.
Charleston, New York: d r r r 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 Charleston, NY
In the last 4 years (2018-2021), there were 675 contributions totaling $35,919 to the Democratic Party and liberal campaigns, averaging $53 per contribution.
In the last 4 years, there were 324 contributions totaling $44,035 to the Republican Party and conservative campaigns, averaging $136 per contribution.
(source: Federal Election Commission)