Montclair, New Jersey is a vibrant and diverse community with an active political landscape. Situated in Essex County, Montclair is home to many registered voters who are passionate about local politics. The community is served by a mayor-council form of government, wherein the Mayor presides over the Town Council to oversee municipal operations. The town council is comprised of nine members who are elected on a nonpartisan ballot for staggered three-year terms. There is also an appointed Township Manager that supervises day-to-day operations while the Mayor and Council focus on long-term strategic planning. Montclair residents are committed to engaging in local politics through voting, attending town hall meetings, and following current events. This commitment to civic engagement helps to ensure that their community remains vibrant and healthy for generations to come.
The political climate in Montclair, NJ is strongly liberal.
Essex County, NJ is very liberal. In Essex County, NJ 77.1% of the people voted Democrat in the last presidential election, 21.8% voted for the Republican Party, and the remaining 1.1% voted Independent.
In the last Presidential election, Essex county remained overwhelmingly Democratic, 77.1% to 21.8%.
Essex county voted Democratic in every Presidential election since 2000.
The BestPlaces liberal/conservative index
Montclair, NJ is strongly liberal.
Essex 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.
Montclair, 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 Montclair, NJ
In the last 4 years (2018-2021), there were 41,345 contributions totaling $9,215,836 to the Democratic Party and liberal campaigns, averaging $223 per contribution.
In the last 4 years, there were 1,894 contributions totaling $859,359 to the Republican Party and conservative campaigns, averaging $454 per contribution.
(source: Federal Election Commission)