Politics
The San Francisco Bay Area is widely regarded as one of the most liberal areas in the country. According to the Cook Partisan Voting Index (CPVI), congressional districts the Bay Area tends to favor Democratic candidates by roughly 40 to 50 percentage points, considerably above the mean for California and the nation overall. All congressional districts in the region voted for Democrat Barack Obama over Republican John McCain in the 2008 Presidential Election. Over the last four and a half decades the 9-county Bay Area voted for Republican candidates only twice, once in 1972 for Richard Nixon and again in 1980 for Ronald Reagan, both Californians. The last county to vote for a Republican Presidential candidate was Napa county in 1988 for George H. W. Bush.
| Year | Democrat | Republican |
|---|---|---|
| 2008 | 73.8% 2,172,411 | 24.4% 717,989 |
| 2004 | 69.2% 1,926,726 | 29.3% 815,225 |
| 2000 | 64.1% 1,607,695 | 30.0% 751,832 |
| 1996 | 60.5% 1,417,511 | 28.3% 662,263 |
| 1992 | 56.2% 1,476,971 | 25.0% 658,202 |
| 1988 | 57.8% 1,338,533 | 40.8% 945,802 |
| 1984 | 50.8% 1,157,855 | 47.9% 1,090,115 |
| 1980 | 40.7% 827,309 | 44.4% 904,100 |
| 1976 | 49.9% 950,055 | 45.8% 872,920 |
| 1972 | 48.2% 990,560 | 49.1 1,007,615 |
| 1968 | 50.8% 890,650 | 41.3% 725,304 |
| 1964 | 65.7% 1,116,215 | 34.1% 579,528 |
| 1960 | 52.0% 820,860 | 47.6% 751,719 |
| District | Location | Cook PVI | % for Obama, 2008 | Median Household Income | Per Capita Income |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| &066th district | Marin County and southern Sonoma County | D +23 | 76.0% | $59,115 | $33,036 |
| &077th district | Richmond, Vallejo, Vacaville, and Pittsburg | D +19 | 71.7% | $52,778 | $22,016 |
| &088th district | City and County of San Francisco | D +35 | 85.4% | $52,322 | $34,552 |
| &099th district | Oakland, Berkeley and Piedmont | D +37 | 88.1% | $44,314 | $25,201 |
| &1010th district | Fairfield, Livermore, Pleasant Hill, Walnut Creek, Concord, and El Cerrito | D +11 | 64.9% | $65,245 | $31,093 |
| &1111th district | Parts of Contra Costa, Alameda, and Santa Clara counties including Morgan Hill, Pleasanton, and San Ramon | R +01 | 53.8% | $61,996 | $28,420 |
| &1212th district | San Francisco Peninsula including most of San Mateo County | D +23 | 74.3% | $70,307 | $34,448 |
| &1313th district | Much of the East Bay, including Fremont, Union City and Hayward | D +22 | 74.4% | $62,415 | $26,076 |
| &1414th district | Silicon Valley, including Redwood City, Mountain View, Sunnyvale, Palo Alto and Santa Cruz | D +21 | 73.0% | $77,985 | $43,063 |
| &1515th district | City of San Jose (western areas) | D +15 | 68.4% | $74,947 | $32,617 |
| &1616th district | San Jose, Morgan Hill | D +16 | 69.6% | $67,689 | $25,064 |
| Median | Districts: 6th, 7th, 8th, 9th, 10th, 12th, 13th, 14th, 15th, 16th | D +21.5 | 73% | $65,052 | $32,826 |
During the Base Realignment and Closures (BRACs) of the 1990s, almost all the military installations in the region were closed. The only remaining major active duty military installations are Travis Air Force Base and Coast Guard Island.
Read more about this topic: San Francisco Bay Area
Famous quotes containing the word politics:
“Our democracy, our culture, our whole way of life is a spectacular triumph of the blah. Why not have a political convention without politics to nominate a leader who’s out in front of nobody?... Maybe our national mindlessness is the very thing that keeps us from turning into one of those smelly European countries full of pseudo-reds and crypto-fascists and greens who dress like forest elves.”
—P.J. (Patrick Jake)