Tea Baggers Predominantly Libertarian?
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.