The Wisconsin Voter The Journal Sentinel's Craig Gilbert explores political trends in a purple state and beyond. SHARE Click to enlarge

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The reddest community in Wisconsin last month was the tiny village of Curtiss in Clark County, where Republican Gov. Scott Walker got 90% of the vote.

The bluest community was the small town of Sanborn on the shores of Lake Superior, where Walker got 12% of the vote.

The gulf between Wisconsin’s most Democratic and Republican places was massive on Nov. 4, even though the state as a whole was fairly evenly divided: the governor won re-election by 5.7 points, almost identical to his margin of 5.8 points four years earlier.

The Government Accountability Board posted certified, ward-by-ward election results on Monday. The Journal Sentinel used that data to calculate how every one of Wisconsin’s more than 1,800 cities, towns and villages voted in the contest between Walker and his Democratic challenger, Mary Burke.

Some highlights from the analysis:

Walker won 1,481 of the state’s 1,852 communities. He dominated rural and small-town Wisconsin, winning close to 90% of the state’s towns and more than two-thirds of the state’s villages.

Walker also won a majority of the state’s cities, performing notably well in the Fox Valley, carrying the cities of Green Bay (by 3 points), Appleton (by 6 points) and Fond du Lac (by 15 points). As expected, Walker won by huge margins in the suburban cities on Milwaukee’s periphery. He carried Brookfield by 46 points, New Berlin by 41 points, Waukesha by 32 points and Muskego by 48 points.

Despite the breadth of his victory, the governor’s overall winning margin was limited by his massive losses in Milwaukee and Madison, by far the state’s two biggest cities. The governor lost Milwaukee by 53 points and 109,679 votes. He lost Madison by 58 points and 70,846 votes. Democrat Burke also won by double-digits in the cities of Kenosha (a 17-point margin), Eau Claire (10 points), Racine (31 points), Janesville (18 points), La Crosse (23 points), Stevens Point (19 points) and Superior (31 points).

These local voting patterns are another reminder of the state’s polarized geography.

Only about one in five Wisconsin voters (22%) live in a city, town or village decided by single digits last month.

Nearly half (45%) live in a community decided by 30 points or more.

And those landslide communities reveal a lot about where each party draws its strongest support.

What were the reddest and bluest places on the map last month?

The most Democratic cities, towns and villages fall into several distinct categories.

They include highly educated, liberal and mostly white communities such as the city of Madison, where Burke got 78%; the village of Shorewood Hills outside Madison, where Burke got 84%; and the village of Shorewood outside Milwaukee, where Burke got 72%. Within the city of Madison, Burke won some individual wards with as much as 95% of the vote.

They include places with significant black and Latino populations, like the city of Milwaukee, where Burke got 76%; the Dane County town of Madison, where Burke got 86%; and the Dane County city of Fitchburg, where Burke got 69%. Within the city of Milwaukee, Burke won some African-American wards with 99% of the vote.

They include majority native American communities like the Ashland County town of Sanborn, where Burke got 87%; the Bayfield County town of Russell, where Burke got 85%; the Jackson County town of Komensky, where Burke got 83%; the Shawano County town of Bartelme, where Burke got 79%; and the town of Menominee (synonymous with the Menominee Indian Reservation), where Burke got 75%.

And they also include some mostly white communities in far northern Wisconsin that have a long history of voting Democratic: the Bayfield County cities of Washburn and Bayfield, where Burke got nearly 80% of the vote; and the Madeline Island town of La Pointe, where Burke got 77%.

All of the communities cited above were among the 20 bluest places in Wisconsin, based on the Nov. 4 vote for governor.

By contrast, the state’s reddest places are far less diverse. They are almost all overwhelmingly white and small in size. But they do vary in geography and wealth.

The top 20 GOP communities include four affluent villages in Waukesha County: Chenequa, where Walker got 87% of the vote, winning 288 to 40; Lac La Belle, where Walker got 85%; Oconomowoc Lake, where he got 83%; and Merton, where he got 83%.

They also include more middle class or blue collar communities in the Republican counties outside Milwaukee County, such as the Village of Newburg and Town of Addison in Washington County, both of which Walker carried with 82% of the vote.

And they include tiny northern towns such as Tipler in Florence County, where the governor got 88%, and Grover in Taylor County, where he got 85%.

The most Republican place in Wisconsin on Nov. 4 is at first glance a total anomaly. The north central Wisconsin village of Curtiss in Clark County is roughly one-half Hispanic, according to census figures. (The village has a large pork-packing plant and other businesses that are major employers in the area). That ethnic makeup is not what you’d expect of a place that voted 90% Republican.

But almost none of the community’s one-hundred-plus Hispanic residents are eligible voters, according to Village Trustee Sue Holtzheimer, who puts the number of Hispanic voters in the village at three.

Instead, the voters of Curtiss are almost all non-Hispanic whites, and a large number are retirees, she said.

Of the 39 village residents who went to polls Nov. 4, fully 35 voted for Scott Walker.

Follow Craig Gilbert on Twitter @WisVoter

Graphic: Communities tilt red or blue