Counting Tea Party activists causes conflicting numbers
Posted: April 22nd, 2010 06:27 PM ET
From CNN Political Producer Shannon Travis
Washington (CNN) – A new report by a nonprofit organization estimates that there are 67,000 Tea Party activists throughout the country, which is at odds with estimates by a handful of conservatives including Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele.
Dante Chinni, a correspondent for Patchwork Nation, told CNN that they have determined most of the Tea Party activists reside in reliably Republican districts, rural or agricultural areas, wealthy suburbs and what they call "military bastions" located near U.S. military bases. Patchwork Nation, which was launched by the Christian Science Monitor and funded by the Knight Foundation, arrived at 67,000 by poring over publicly available information to identify people who actually registered with Tea Party organizations.
Chinni told CNN the figure does not include people who may sympathize with or support the Tea Party movement.
"Is this a complete list of everybody? No," Chinni said. "I think … there's probably maybe 10,000-to-12,000 total that we've missed."
http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2010/04/22/counting-tea-party-activists-causes-conflicting-numbers/?fbid=aZzgQx-ka92-----------------------------------------------
This seems about right based on the reality of people who show up at their protests and stuff nationwide. Of course the Tea Party people and Repubes like to add to that number by saying the number who "support" the Tea Party, which could be defined loosely. They could assume that everyone who voted against Obama "supports" the Tea Party and their general cause.