(Chicago, IL) — October 27, 2010. Illinois GOP governor candidate Bill Brady is bringing conservative GOP southern governors to a campaign Tea Party rally in Will County while downplaying the event’s “Tea Party” sponsorship, a distancing which comes on the heels of new polling data that reveals that self-identified Tea Party membership is slumping nationally, particularly among key voting groups.
The Will County Tea Party Alliance rally will be the final stop on Brady’s suburban bus tour.
“I will be proud to stand with leaders who are working hard to bring economic growth to their states,” Brady said. “We can bring jobs back to Illinois if we also commit ourselves to creating a job-friendly environment.”
Brady will take the stage with Governors Bobby Jindal of Louisiana, Haley Barbour of Mississippi and Bob McDonnell of Virginia. Additionally, Illinois Tea Party darling, Illinois state senate candidate Cedra Crenshaw (R-Bolingbrook) who is challenging State Senator A.J. Wihelmi (D-Joliet), will also appear with Brady.
However, the Chicago Tribune‘s Rick Pearson noted in a story two days ago that Brady is overlooking the Tea Party links in his promotion of the event.
Brady’s campaign made no mention of the fact that the Will County Tea Party Alliance is hosting the event. The tea party group and a variety of conservative groups are promoting attendance by saying, “Tea Partiers, Independents, Republicans, Conservatives, and Libertarians will gather together in Homer Glen to prepare for the final drive to victory.”
Brady has attended events sponsored by tea party movement organizations in the past.
The GOP governor nominee’s downplaying the Tea Party role comes as new polling data from conservatives’ favorite polling firm, Rasmussen Reports, reports that self-identified Tea Partiers has slumped overall since spring and has collapsed among multiple, key voting groups.
According to a Rasmusen October 6-7 national survey, the number of self-identified Tea Partiers has dropped from 24% in an April 8-11 poll to 17% earlier this month or a 29% drop. Among voters 18-29, Tea Party identification has evaporated, falling from 26% in April to 7% in October or a 73% fall, according to cross tab data. And the all-important voting group of women has witnessed a 50% dive from 24% in April to 12% in October.
In addition to women, Tea Party identification has fallen among other key age groups between April and October:
- 65 and older–28% to 18%, down 55%
- 50-64–25% to 19%, down 31.5%
- 40-49–26% to 17%, down 52.9%
The Executive Vice President of the Cook County Democratic Party, Illinois Deputy House Majority Lou Lang (D-Skokie), says the Tea Party’s extremism is not wearing well among voters over time.
“The shrill extremism of the Tea Party is turning off voters, and more and more are pulling away from the protest movement as the protest has morphed into intolerance and irrationality, particularly alienating the young, women, and senior voters,” said Lang.
The rally will take place Wednesday, October 27 at Elite Fitness-Megaplex Center in Homer Glen. Doors open at 5 pm, and the rally begins at 6pm. Live music, video presentations, free refreshments, and radio personality Cisco Cotto will stoke on-lookers.
Brady, who faces Governor Pat Quinn on November 2, is visiting communities throughout Illinois as part of his tour.
Gov. Pat Quinn
What a load, of excrement! Maybe Hunter S. Thompson was right when he said “Journalism is not a profession or a trade. It is a cheap catch-all…….” I get so tired of someones wishful thinking that then passes for a news story. One could all most set their watch by this, that in the last week before the election that all these story’s about how crazy the tea party is and that people don’t like them. What people are tired of is being lied to by the press and career politicians, who treat everyone around them with so much contempt. Who tell them they are cruel and stupid for not giving to government ever nickel they make. So they can fund what ever crazy scheme they can dream up. Maybe these folks should be thankful that they live in a country that when the peasants storm the bastille its nothing more then them getting voted out of office.
Posted by Myles Newberry | October 27, 2010, 9:10 PMMyles,
You need to, er, reread the story.
The Tea Party’s craziness aside, the point of the story is that fewer “peasants” are self-identifying themselves as Tea Party members. You can rant irrationally until your red in the face, which reinforces the craziness image, but that has no affect on the validity of statistic probability derived from a representative sample in a pubic opinion survey. Sorry.
Thanks for reading.
David Ormsby
Posted by David Ormsby | October 27, 2010, 9:21 PM