Trump, Biden in see-saw battle in Placer: Why the foothill county is no longer reliably ‘red’

Is Placer County, a longtime Republican bastion, now tilting toward the purple center of the political spectrum?

That may well be the case, as evidenced by the see-saw presidential race in the foothills county this week. Donald Trump, who easily won Placer over Hillary Clinton in 2016, trailed Democrat Joe Biden in early returns this week, a surprise turn of events reported by The Bee in an earlier version of this story.

By late Friday, though, Trump had edged back ahead, 49.4% to 48.6%. That’s a 1,548 vote lead with an estimated 42,000 votes left to count

The battle is a sign that Placer – one of California’s fastest-growing counties – is changing its personality and some of its politics as it becomes more urban, more modern and more socially complex.

Young families are moving in droves into burgeoning west Roseville, where Joe Biden-Kamala Harris signs sprouted on front lawns. Some likely are holding on to well-paying Bay Area jobs via the new phenomenon of teleworking amid the coronavirus pandemic. They’ve come to Placer because home prices are lower and it’s an easier place to raise a family.

Those newcomers are part of why Roseville succeeded in passing a sales tax increase two years ago with 62% of the vote, a healthy margin that surprised some long-term political watchers. Younger voters are more likely to agree to spend more in taxes because they have a stronger sense that they are part of building the future.

The more intriguing new voters in Placer may well be the thousands who have moved to more rural areas of the county in recent years, including Democratic retirees from the Bay Area who nevertheless may be more conservative fiscally because they have “nest eggs” to protect.

Bonnie Gore, chairwoman of the Placer County Board of Supervisors, says she found Biden’s strength in Placer a “very interesting” development and spent some time thinking about it. It may be because of newcomers with a more independent mindset, she said.

On the other hand, it may be a bit of a one-off vote based on people’s personal feelings about Trump. “I realize how many friends I have who are Republicans who are not going to vote for Trump,” she said. “It had more to do about the candidate than necessarily the party.”

Gore pointed out that on state Proposition 15 – which would have increased taxes on businesses and was opposed by conservative groups – 62% of Placer voters were opposed, higher than California voters overall, who appear to have rejected the measure with 52% opposed.

New Placer residents drive change

Longtime Placer political consultant Aldo Pineschi, who works with both Republicans and Democrats, says newcomers clearly are making Placer politics less predictable.

“We tend to want to put them in some category, that they are going to vote this way or that way, but their philosophy cuts across different parts of politics,” he said. “They may be conservative in some sense, but socially more liberal.”

With that change comes friction. In Loomis this summer, a march of local residents supporting the Black Lives Matter movement turned into a shouting match with counter protesters, forcing law enforcement to step in.

There are still notably more registered Republicans than Democrats in Placer, but the gap is narrowing. Republicans ruled the county in 2004 with 52% of voters. Their numbers are now at 42% and dropping.

Democrats didn’t, in fact, gain a lot of ground in that time. Their share increased from 29% in 2004 to 31%. New Democratic voters are spread all over the county, gaining footholds in Roseville, Rocklin, Lincoln, Auburn, Colfax, Loomis and even rural, unincorporated areas of Placer.

The most telling change lies among the growing legions of voters who decline to align with either Republicans or Democrats. That group has increased from 19% of the electorate in 2004 to 27% today.

Congressional race in Placer

Those changes are reflected in this week’s race in the U.S. House of Representatives 4th District, a vast area that covers much of the central California foothills and mountains. Conservative Republican Tom McClintock defeated Democratic challenger Brynne Kennedy, but Kennedy led McClintock in early returns in south Placer County before ceding that lead in the updated results announced Friday.

The evolving nature of the county may explain why both a Democrat and Republican appear to have won Auburn City Council seats this week, even as Biden trounced Trump in early voting, 57% to 41% in the main Auburn voting precinct.

Democrat Rachel Radell-Harris and Republican Alice Dowdin Calvillo made their case by walking precincts and talking with voters. Calvillo, though, said she noticed that even though the City Council race is non-partisan, more people asked candidates what their party affiliation was than in the 1990s and early 2000s, when Calvillo previously served on the council.

“I do feel that partisan politics comes into play at a local level, more so than previous elections,” she said. She doesn’t think that is unique to Auburn or Placer County. “We have become more polarized as a country. I think that is trickling down.”

In what may be a sign of the divisive moment, residents of seven homes in Roseville with Biden-Harris campaign signs or flags found strange blue dots spray painted on the street in front of their houses over the weekend.

“I was scared ... but later I got upset,” said Pam O’Quin, who lives in one of the homes. She believes someone was trying to intimidate them. There are homes on her block with Trump flags and campaign signs. But she doesn’t know who might have sprayed the dots.

“If I had more (campaign) signs to put out, I would put them out just to make them mad,” O’Quin said. She’s not going to stop expressing her political opinion. “Because I’m tired of these people trying to bully us ... it’s time to stand up to them.”

The dots were gone, though, by Sunday evening. A neighbor and his son cleaned the graffiti. O’Quin said she wondered why the neighbor wanted to do that, but she didn’t ask.

This story was originally published November 5, 2020 at 5:00 AM.