Athens, WI is a small city located in Marathon County with a population of about 1,300 people. The government in Athens consists of a mayor and six members of the City Council who are elected by the citizens every two years. The Mayor and City Council are responsible for creating and implementing laws, regulations, and policies that benefit the community as well as providing various services such as public safety, infrastructure maintenance and economic development. Currently, Mayor Todd O'Brien is leading the city council with their agenda to improve the quality of life for all Athens residents. This includes improving public safety by adding more police officers, developing new parks and recreational areas, and encouraging economic growth through grants to small businesses. The city also hosts an annual town hall meeting where citizens can ask questions or give feedback to their elected officials. Through these meetings, Athens residents have an opportunity to be heard on what they believe should be done for their community.
The political climate in Athens, WI is moderately conservative.
Marathon County, WI is moderately conservative. In Marathon County, WI 40.1% of the people voted Democrat in the last presidential election, 58.1% voted for the Republican Party, and the remaining 1.7% voted Independent.
In the last Presidential election, Marathon county remained very strongly Republican, 58.1% to 40.1%.
Marathon county voted Republican in five of the last six Presidential elections (2008 went Democratic).
The BestPlaces liberal/conservative index
Athens, WI is moderately conservative.
Marathon County, Wisconsin is moderately conservative.
Wausau-Weston Metro Area is moderately conservative.
Wisconsin is leaning 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.
Athens, Wisconsin: 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 Athens, WI
In the last 4 years (2018-2021), there were 8 contributions totaling $310 to the Democratic Party and liberal campaigns, averaging $39 per contribution.
In the last 4 years, there were 68 contributions totaling $18,032 to the Republican Party and conservative campaigns, averaging $265 per contribution.
(source: Federal Election Commission)