Rutland, South Dakota is a small town located in Union County with a population of just under 500 people. The town is run by an elected mayor and four council members who serve four-year terms. Elections are held in even-numbered years and the current mayor is David Johnson. The town council works to ensure that Rutland remains a safe and pleasant place to live for its citizens. They are also responsible for determining how the town's resources are allocated, which includes making decisions about local taxation, public safety, infrastructure and community development projects. In addition to this, they seek to ensure that the rights of citizens are respected and protected. The local government of Rutland works hard to ensure that everyone feels welcome and included in their community.
The political climate in Rutland, SD is strongly conservative.
Lake County, SD is strongly conservative. In Lake County, SD 35.2% of the people voted Democrat in the last presidential election, 62.7% voted for the Republican Party, and the remaining 2.1% voted Independent.
In the last Presidential election, Lake county remained overwhelmingly Republican, 62.7% to 35.2%.
Lake county voted Republican in five of the last six Presidential elections (2008 went Democratic).
The BestPlaces liberal/conservative index
Rutland, SD is strongly conservative.
Lake County, South Dakota is strongly conservative.
South Dakota is strongly 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.
Rutland, South Dakota: r R d 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 Rutland, SD
In the last 4 years (2018-2021), there were 25 contributions totaling $7,864 to the Democratic Party and liberal campaigns, averaging $315 per contribution.
In the last 4 years, there were 32 contributions totaling $5,956 to the Republican Party and conservative campaigns, averaging $186 per contribution.
(source: Federal Election Commission)