Ithaca, NY is a beautiful city located in the Finger Lakes region of Central New York. It has a vibrant and diverse culture with plenty of activities to keep locals busy. When it comes to politics, Ithaca is often seen as a progressive bastion due to its large student population at Cornell University as well as the presence of activists that have been fighting for social justice for many years. The city operates under a mayor-council form of government, with Mayor Svante Myrick currently serving since 2012. Ithaca's City Council members are elected from seven districts to represent their constituents' interests on issues such as zoning, public safety, economic development, education and more. In addition to local representatives, Ithaca also sends representatives to Albany at both the state and federal level in Washington DC. All these representatives work together to ensure that Ithacans have their voices heard on various issues related to politics and policy so that the city can remain an example of progressivism for all New Yorkers.
The political climate in Ithaca, NY is strongly liberal.
Tompkins County, NY is very liberal. In Tompkins County, NY 73.5% of the people voted Democrat in the last presidential election, 24.3% voted for the Republican Party, and the remaining 2.2% voted Independent.
In the last Presidential election, Tompkins county remained overwhelmingly Democratic, 73.5% to 24.3%.
Tompkins county voted Democratic in every Presidential election since 2000.
The BestPlaces liberal/conservative index
Ithaca, NY is strongly liberal.
Tompkins County, New York is very liberal.
Ithaca Metro Area is very liberal.
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.
Ithaca, New York: 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 Ithaca, NY
In the last 4 years (2018-2021), there were 27,665 contributions totaling $3,162,029 to the Democratic Party and liberal campaigns, averaging $114 per contribution.
In the last 4 years, there were 885 contributions totaling $200,106 to the Republican Party and conservative campaigns, averaging $226 per contribution.
(source: Federal Election Commission)