Ronald B. Rapoport and colleagues have a new paper titled "Republican Factionalism and Tea Party Activists." The abstract:
In this paper we examine Republican Party factional differences between Tea Party Republicans and non-Tea Party Republicans. We find, first, that at the mass level Tea Party supporters constitute a majority of Republican identifiers--particularly among those most active in Republican campaigns. We examine the large and significant differences between the two factions. We then turn to an examination of Tea Party (potential) activists, relying on a survey of almost 12,000 supporters of the largest Tea Party membership group: FreedomWorks. lthough very similar to the mass sample of tea Party Republicans on issue positions, this group is far more negative towards the Republican Party. We examine the sources of this negativity in ideology, issue priorities, partisanship and political style.
