It’s no secret the country is more polarized than ever – and polling of local elected officials shows it’s no different among our state’s mayors and councilmembers.

As part of our 10th anniversary at CaliforniaCityNews.org, we partnered with the Prime Group, an opinion research firm with offices in Los Angeles and D.C., to conduct a first-of-its-kind opinion poll of California mayors and councilmembers this month. The poll addressed key issues ranging from Presidential approval, sanctuary cities, economic growth and others.

What did we find, aside from a couple very noteworthy issues, our city officials are as far apart as anyone. The one issue they can agree on?

Pensions.

“State and Local Pension issues” were by far the top priority for our respondents, and the issues crossed party lines. For Republicans and Independents, it was #1… but even Democrats placed it just behind housing as their top priority.

But the similarities ended there. Democrats, Republicans, and those with no party preference showed starkly different views on the direction of the country overall, the direction of the state, approval ratings of President Trump and Governor Brown, as well as immigration issues.

After pension issues, Independents ranked immigration and water issues in their top three – surprising as Republicans took a much lower interest in immigration (18% lower interest) despite the national conversation among top Republican leaders on the subject. It might also come as a surprise that homelessness and education were ranked the lowest priority among all participants in the poll – with both receiving just 1% of the vote each.

Among the other key findings:

For a full memo on the results and more key findings, please visit us at CaliforniaCityNews.org.

We will also be hosting a free webinar with the pollster to walk through the findings on Wednesday, June 14 at 11:30 a.m. You can find registration details in the Citynews page linked above.