• 40 percent are age 55 and over, compared with 32 percent of all poll respondents.
• 22 percent are under age 35
• 79 percent are white
• 61 percent are men
• 44 percent identified themselves as “born-again” Christians, compared with 33 percent of all respondents.
A look at some of their views:
• They disdain both the Republican and Democratic Parties, 90 percent saying both parties “behave badly.”
• 96 percent said government spending is out of control, versus 69 percent of other respondents.
• 86 percent said taxes are too high, compared with 57 percent of the others.
• 90 percent said the country is on the wrong track and almost the same number doubt that Washington can find solutions.
• More than 90 percent said the United States is moving more toward socialism than capitalism, the federal government is trying to control too many aspects of private life, and more decisions should be made at the state level.
• Still, 70 percent want a federal government that fosters job creation.
Source: Conducted by Selzer & Co. Inc. of Des Moines March 19-22, based on interviews with 1,002 Americans age 18 or older. The poll has a margin of error of plus or minus 3.1 percentage points.
Over the past six months, a fiery group of about two dozen Omahans has met once a week to publicly protest health care legislation.
Many were new to the world of politics. Many were elderly. Many say they were called to action by last year's tea party rallies protesting federal spending and the nation's mounting debt.
The protesters, carrying placards, gathered every Tuesday outside U.S. Sen. Ben Nelson's office near 76th and Pacific Streets.
“We're shocked things have gotten so far out of whack,” said Patrick Bonnett, 38, a financial consultant from Omaha.
Although not as vocal or visible as their counterparts in other parts of the country, activists in the tea party movement have been making their voices heard across Nebraska and Iowa. They packed town hall meetings for returning members of Congress and mounted letter-writing and telephone campaigns.
Along the way, they have become a force to be reckoned with or another political base to be wooed by Republican politicians.
Nebraska U.S. Rep. Lee Terry, who faces a challenger from within the tea party ranks, frequently courts these activists and shows up at their seminars and meetings.
Terry, a Republican, initially angered tea party activists after he voted for the bank bailout bill under President George W. Bush. Terry now says that vote may have been a mistake.
In Iowa, U.S. Sen. Chuck Grassley walked away from health care negotiations after tea party activists turned out in droves at his town hall meetings, urging the Republican to stand against the health care bill.
Still, supporters and others say, it's too early to measure the success of this relatively young movement. That may come into play in the fall or possibly in future elections, if the movement remains active and more tea party-affiliated candidates show up on ballots.
The Tea Party Express, a cross-country bus caravan, is scheduled to roll into Omaha on Thursday for a 5 p.m. rally at Zorinsky Lake. The tour is dedicated to criticizing Congress for federal spending policies.
Currently, only a handful of candidates associated with the movement are running for office in Nebraska and Iowa.
A typical tea party activist is older, white, has conservative fiscal beliefs and consumes a lot of news. Many say they were called to action after watching the federal deficit grow over the past 10 years.
They believe the government is on the brink of disaster.
“We're really concerned about losing our country,” said Sheila Heieck, 60, director of the Omaha chapter of Americans for Prosperity, a tea party-affiliated group. Heieck has been a financial supporter of several Republican candidates.
The tea party movement grew in early 2009 as concerns mounted over the growing national deficit fueled first by the passage of the bank bailout and then by the passage of President Barack Obama's stimulus bill.
Crowds gathered outside at courthouses across the country. Last April in Omaha, an estimated 1,500 people filled the grounds of the Douglas County Courthouse, some carrying tea bags, U.S. flags and copies of the Constitution.
But the groups that have formed since the early rallies are hardly cohesive.
In Nebraska, there are several groups with tea party allegiances, including local chapters of the national Americans for Prosperity, the Nebraska 912 Freedom Project, and the Western Nebraska Tea Party.
Tea Party Patriots is the main group in Iowa, but there are also splinter groups.
Some tea partiers pride themselves on not having a single leader or group of leaders. But it is this lack of leadership structure that will have to change if the movement hopes to be a force in politics, said U.S. Rep. Steve King, R-Iowa.
“I don't know if they can continue to grow unless people emerge as their leaders,” King said.
The fractured nature of the movement was evident earlier this year at the tea party's first national political convention in Nashville, Tenn. About 600 people attended the gathering, which featured former Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin.
The convention was not without controversy. Some people backed out when they learned it was sponsored by Tea Party Nation, a for-profit social networking site.
Other organizations, including Tea Party Patriots, urged their supporters to stay away from the convention. An Iowa organizer of the group, Ryan Rhodes, said they did.
Dawn Klein, an organizer of the Nebraska 912 Freedom Project, said she knew of no Nebraskans who attended. Her group is affiliated with the 9.12 Project launched by Fox News talk show host Glenn Beck.
Another convention will be held this summer in Las Vegas, sponsored by a group called National Tea Party Unity.
Officially, the tea party groups are nonpartisan. But everyone inside and outside the groups acknowledges a heavy Republican presence, including funding of some tea party groups by people with close ties to the party.
Even so, tea partiers are not altogether happy with Republicans. They believe the GOP abandoned most of its principles when it was in power in the 2000s. Now they feel it is their job to seek accountability from Republicans as well as Democrats.
“We're not going to take watered-down politics, where they tell us what we want to hear and then spend like drunken sailors,” said Rhodes, a Republican who is chairman of the Iowa Tea Party Patriots.
In their first election this year, the movement has a couple of candidates with ties to their organizations running in Iowa and Nebraska.
Republican Matt Sakalosky of Omaha seeks to wrest the GOP nomination from Terry, who represents the Omaha-based 2nd Congressional District.
Sakalosky is a member of the Nebraska 912 Freedom Project, and was critical of Terry's vote for the Bush bank bailout.
The Western Nebraska Tea Party and the Nebraska 912 Freedom Project also are behind an initiative petition drive that aims to let Nebraskans recall any elected official, including members of Congress. Drive supporters said they were dismayed at the December vote by Nelson, a Democrat, for the health care overhaul. He voted against the budget reconciliation package to amend the overhaul that was passed Thursday.
In Iowa, Republican Dave Funk is running against U.S. Rep. Leonard Boswell, a Democrat, in the 3rd District. And Republican Matt Schultz, a city councilman from Council Bluffs, is running against Democratic incumbent Michael Mauro for Iowa secretary of state. Rhodes said Funk and Schultz are both considered tea party supporters.
Rhodes said the movement didn't have a lot of time and experience this year in recruiting candidates. He predicted that will change in 2012.
“You're going to start to see some of the fruits this year, but I think you're going to see more fruit in 2012,” Rhodes said.
Contact the writer:
444-1309, robynn.tysver@owh.com
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