Thanks to North Baltimore Patch for letting us know about this one. You may have heard that the GOP suffered major blows to their national approval ratings in the wake of the recent tea party-led government shutdown, but our state’s own tea-party organization, Maryland Society of Patriots, says it’s been gaining members.
The group’s founder, Sam Hale of Linthicum, actually credits news coverage of the shutdown with enticing Marylanders to seek out his organization, which currently boasts 1,700 members in its Facebook group and 3,000 on its email list.
St. Mary’s College Associate Professor of Political Science Todd Eberly reminds us that Republicans as a whole make up only 30 percent of Maryland’s voting public. Tea partiers are a minority of a minority.
So will they be affecting state politics any time soon? Not without a couple more federal shutdowns to boost membership.
