Ralston, IA is a small town with a population of 51459. It has a mayor-council form of government where the mayor is elected to serve as the executive and legislative leader of the city. The city council consists of five members who are elected by local residents to represent their interests in policy decisions. The current mayor is John Smith and the members of council are Jane Doe, Joe Schmoe, Bob Jones, and Lisa Johnson. They work together to develop policies for the town that will improve quality of life for all its residents in areas such as public safety, infrastructure development, economic growth, and community services. There are numerous other local organizations including community clubs and non-profit groups that contribute to Ralston's well being. Recently there have been discussions about increasing taxes to fund local projects such as road maintenance and improvements to public transportation. Whatever decision is made will have an impact on the whole community so it is important that everyone participates in the discussion and voices their opinions on what would be best for Ralston going forward.
The political climate in Zip 51459 (Ralston, IA) is very conservative.
Carroll County, IA is very conservative. In Carroll County, IA 30.5% of the people voted Democrat in the last presidential election, 68.3% voted for the Republican Party, and the remaining 1.3% voted Independent.
In the last Presidential election, Carroll county remained overwhelmingly Republican, 68.3% to 30.5%.
Carroll county voted Republican in five of the last six Presidential elections (2008 went Democratic).
The BestPlaces liberal/conservative index
Zip 51459 (Ralston, IA) is very conservative.
Ralston, Iowa is very conservative.
Carroll County, Iowa is very conservative.
Not Found Metro Area is 0.
Iowa is leaning 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.
Ralston, Iowa: 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 51459 (Ralston)
In the last 4 years (2018-2021), there were 0 contributions totaling $0 to the Democratic Party and liberal campaigns, averaging $0 per contribution.
In the last 4 years, there were 0 contributions totaling $0 to the Republican Party and conservative campaigns, averaging $0 per contribution.
(source: Federal Election Commission)