Milwaukee challenges Madison in ranking of liberal-voting cities

It had to be a blow to Madison's self-esteem when it ranked only 34th in a recent list of the country's most liberal cities -- only six spots ahead of Milwaukee.

Madison's always considered itself, and been considered as, a bastion of liberalism, since the anti-war days of the 1960s and the election of Paul Soglin, the Red Mayor, in 1973.

But the survey by the Berkeley-based (suspicious already?) group that did the study only considered voting, not attitude or political correctness -- and only for one election at that. It looked at cities with a population of 100,000 or more.

On the basis of presidential votes in 2004, Detroit tops the list. Liberal candidates took 93.96% of the vote in Detroit while conservative candidates held onto a mere 6.04% of the vote. Other cities with over 90% liberal votes include: Gary, Ind.; Berkeley, Cal.; the District of Columbia and Oakland, Cal. . The other top liberal cities in the top twenty-five range from 78% to 90% votes for liberal candidates.

And Madison? Number 34, with 74.92% of the vote going to liberals.

Milwaukee isn't far behind, at Number 40, with a 72.41% liberal vote.

The Midwest is actually the second most liberal area in the country, the survey says, with Detroit and Gary 1-2 and the top 25 also including Flint, Mich. (10), Cleveland (11), Chicago (17), St. Louis (20) and Minneapolis (23).

On the conservative side, Provo, Utah, home of Brigham Young University, is #1 with an 86% conservative vote, followed by Lubbock and Abilene, Tex. at 2-3. Four of the top 25 are in Texas and seven are in California.

Want more? See the whole report here.