By Ben Cohen

Nate Silver has an interesting take on the Tea Baggers - that most came from states with strong libertarian leanings. Silver published his thoughts last week (with no evidence), and has followed up with the following proof:

The best benchmark I've been able to come up with for libertarianism is the

amount of contributions to Ron Paul's 2008 presidential campaign

.

Fundraising data has the advantage of being extremely clean and

comprehensive -- all contributions of at least $200 are reported to the

FEC and itemized by their location. Here, then, were Ron Paul's best

fundraising states, as measured by contributions per adult aged 18+.

Top Ron Paul Fundraising States,
Donations Per Adult 18+
New Hampshire $0.22
Wyoming $0.18
Alaska  $0.18
Nevada  $0.17
Montana $0.15
Idaho  $0.14
Washington$0.14
Texas  $0.13
Arizona $0.11
Colorado $0.11

Silver then compares the findings with attendance numbers for the 'parties' in all the states, and finds a correlation.