.jpg?width=100&auto=webp&quality=80&disable=upscale "Picture of Michael Keating")
.jpg?width=400&auto=webp&quality=80&disable=upscale "Michael Keating")
Subscribe to receive American City & County Newsletters
Catch up on the latest trends, industry news, articles, research and analysis for government professionals
Golden State county tops list as most liberal
San Francisco, Calif., ranks at the top of the list of the most liberal counties in the United States, according to calculations by the Daily Caller web site.
Michael Keating
January 5, 2011
2 Min Read
Written by Michael Keating
According to the Daily Caller web site, San Francisco, Calif., is at the top of the list of the most liberal counties in the United States. The combined city and county has a long history of supporting liberal causes. The community has always been a center of progressive politics and was the headquarters of the counterculture in the 1960s. San Francisco has a long tradition of supporting organized labor as well as the gay community. Its easygoing tolerance continues in 2011.
The Daily Caller used 12 measures in developing its ranking of most liberal counties, including:
Percentage of the presidential election votes that John Kerry and Barack Obama received
Median household income, adjusted for cost of living
Percentage of adult population with bachelors degree or higher
Percentage of adult population in management/professional jobs
Unionization laws — whether right-to-work laws are in effect
State concealed carry laws
State abortion laws, as measured by Americans United for Life
Status of same-sex partnerships (whether civil union, same-sex marriage, etc.)
A count on the number of Whole Foods stores in the county
How strict are a community’s ban on smoking
Also in the top 5 most liberal counties:
2. Montgomery County, Md.
3. Marin County, Calif.
4. Boulder County, Colo.
5. New York County, N.Y.
California had five counties in the top 20 most liberal, followed by Massachusetts, New York, and Virginia that had two each.
Arthur
Does a county’s conservative or liberal makeup have an impact on the county’s operations/budgets/tax policies? Arthur “Jerry” Kremer, a 23-year veteran of the New York state legislature, says whoever is in charge will have an impact on a particular county. “All counties reflect the philosophy of whoever’s running them,” Kremer told Govpro.com. “There’s no question in my mind that in counties that are liberal, the last thing they would want to do is lay off employees and cut back on personnel and social programs. In conservative counties, the first place they will go to cut budgets is social programs, definitely. Whatever the working majority is in a county legislature or a board of supervisors, you can expect the policies to reflect it.”
Kremer is former chairman of the New York state legislature’s Ways and Means Committee and chairman of Manhattan, N.Y.-based Empire Government Strategies, a political consulting firm that provides services across the East Coast. Kremer has been the News12 political analyst for more than 15 years and appears regularly on the Fox network and ABC television.
The Daily Caller is a 24-hour news site providing original reporting, commentary and breaking news.
Govpro.com recently presented a most conservative county ranking.
Additionally, Govpro.com has posted a conservative and liberal ranking of communities in the past. The ranking continues to attract a lot of comments and analysis. What do you think? Please post your comments below.
