Fall Line is working on California version of the Progressive Voter Index, in which every precinct in San Francisco is ranked according to its ideological leanings. Using a factor analysis technique similar to that in the San Francisco PVI (see the report on our Projects page), we're starting at the county level to delineate big-picture statewide political trends.
Unlike the very ideologically-driven San Francisco electorate, we discovered that for California measures, factoring social issues (like abortion, DNA database, etc.) produced different results than using fiscal issues (bonds). Therefore, we created two indices and a combined overall index. Needless to say, San Francisco blew every county away on both scales as being the most liberal, but several counties had quite different social/fiscal results.
The map below on the left is the overall combined California index. No big surprises on a first pass. The map on the right is the difference between a county's social and fiscal scores. The northwestern counties are more socially than fiscally liberal, while many of the Central Valley counties are more fiscally liberal (or, we should say, more socially conservative). Imperial County had the biggest difference between the two, by far.
Keep an eye out for further work on this exciting extension of the PVI. Soon, we hope to have a statewide precinct-level index for use! if you have any questions, or want to know more about this work, contact Fall Line at info@flanalytics.com.
