Gardner, Illinois is a small town with a population of approximately 6,000 people. It is located in Grundy County and has a mayor-council form of government. The current mayor is Mark Hawkinson who was elected in 2013 and reelected in 2017. In addition to the mayor, there are six members of the city council which represent individual wards within the city. They are elected every four years on an at-large basis. The current members of the city council are John Hildebrandt, Joe Catterson, Dennis Meyer, Tom Johnson, Justin McKeown and Tanya Bright. Gardner also operates its own police department as well as a fire department with emergency medical services. The town has several other departments such as public works and parks and recreation which provide vital services to the community. The citizens of Gardner have an important role to play in local politics by attending city meetings and voting for their representatives at the ballot box.
The political climate in Zip 60424 (Gardner, IL) is strongly conservative.
Grundy County, IL is strongly conservative. In Grundy County, IL 36.0% of the people voted Democrat in the last presidential election, 61.8% voted for the Republican Party, and the remaining 2.3% voted Independent.
In the last Presidential election, Grundy county remained overwhelmingly Republican, 61.8% to 36.0%.
Grundy county voted Republican in five of the last six Presidential elections (2008 went Democratic).
The BestPlaces liberal/conservative index
Zip 60424 (Gardner, IL) is strongly conservative.
Gardner, Illinois is strongly conservative.
Grundy County, Illinois is strongly conservative.
Chicago-Naperville-Elgin Metro Area is very liberal.
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.
Gardner, Illinois: 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 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 60424 (Gardner)
In the last 4 years (2018-2021), there were 1 contributions totaling $175 to the Democratic Party and liberal campaigns, averaging $175 per contribution.
In the last 4 years, there were 4 contributions totaling $4,225 to the Republican Party and conservative campaigns, averaging $1,056 per contribution.
(source: Federal Election Commission)