The small town of Benton, IL (zip code 62812) is part of Franklin County, located in the southern part of Illinois. As such, it is currently represented in the state legislature by state representative Patrick Windhorst from District 118 and state senator Dale Fowler from District 59. On the local level, Benton has two city council members, Sam McCollum and Linda Collins, both elected to four-year terms in 2017. The town also has a mayor, Tom Rholens, who was elected in 2015 for a four-year term. The politics in Benton are focused on taking care of its citizens through services related to public safety, road maintenance, and quality public education. In addition to these services the town budget is allocated towards improvements to parks and recreational facilities as well as historic preservation projects throughout the city.
The political climate in Zip 62812 (Benton, IL) is strongly conservative.
Franklin County, IL is very conservative. In Franklin County, IL 25.5% of the people voted Democrat in the last presidential election, 73.0% voted for the Republican Party, and the remaining 1.5% voted Independent.
In the last Presidential election, Franklin county remained overwhelmingly Republican, 73.0% to 25.5%.
Franklin county voted Republican in the last five Presidential elections, after voting Democratic in 2000.
The BestPlaces liberal/conservative index
Zip 62812 (Benton, IL) is strongly conservative.
Benton, Illinois is strongly conservative.
Franklin County, Illinois is very conservative.
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Illinois 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.
Benton, Illinois: 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 for the Democrat and I for the Independent. 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 zip 62812 (Benton)
In the last 4 years (2018-2021), there were 178 contributions totaling $9,080 to the Democratic Party and liberal campaigns, averaging $51 per contribution.
In the last 4 years, there were 95 contributions totaling $16,966 to the Republican Party and conservative campaigns, averaging $179 per contribution.
(source: Federal Election Commission)