Changing political landscape

Sunday’s Star features an extensive analysis of the region’s political makeup. After years of giving more money to Republicans, metro political donations are now almost 50-50 between the two parties. While overall political fundraising has gone up in the region, we still lag other cities by a big margin.

• Most of the metro total comes from the State Line Road corridor – Westport, Plaza, Brookside, Ward Parkway, Mission Hills, Fairway, and old/northern Leawood.
• A big jump in political money from Downtown, due to an exploding residential population and coordinated lobbying from the Downtown Council and other adovactes.
• Johnson County now leads the metro in political money, despite having only 30% of the population.
• Older suburbs like Raytown and northeastern Johnson County are beginning to lean Democratic, and posh areas like Ward Parkway have become strongly Democratic.
• Outer suburbs like Lee’s Summit, the far Northland, and Olathe are strongly Republican.
• Increasing divisions between moderate Republicans and religious extremists in Johnson and Platte Counties.