Tea Party as Money Machine, Part 2

Earlier today we noted the remarkable contribution totals reported by Tea-Party favorites Sharron Angle and Kristi Noem. We can add one more to the list, Minnesota’s own Michele Bachmann, who today reported that during the third quarter she received–“raked in,” as the Minneapolis Star Tribune puts it–a mind-blowing $5.4 million. That brings her total for this election cycle to around $10 million, which, if I understand the Strib’s arithmetic correctly, is twice as much as any Minnesota Congressional candidate has ever raised.
To those familiar with Bachmann’s relentless energy, statistics of this sort will not be surprising. The broader point, however, is that it is obvious where most of the energy is coming from in 2010. Those who are loosely (very loosely, in most cases) affiliated with the Tea Party movement are putting their money where their opinions are, more than anyone else.