A Field poll study sampling 950 registered California voters shows that the state's Tea Party-affiliated voters follow what's going on most of the time in government more than Democrats and voters classified as "Non-partisans/others."
Among the segment of voters who identify with the Tea Party, 77% of them follow "most of the time" what's going on with their government and public office. With those who identify somewhat with the Tea Party, 46% follow what their government. A mere 5% of Tea Party members in the state hardly follow what their government is doing.
Engagement among those who "don't identify" with the Tea Party drops drastically, with 35% who say that they follow the news most of the time. More specifically, only 30% of Californians who identify as non-partisan voters (which is a separate category from the Tea Party) and 41% of Democrats follow the news "most of the time."
The findings on the Tea Party's serious engagement in California politics trails only those voters identifying as Republicans, the party from which the grassroots-led movement has established a noticeable separation on certain occasions.
Those who followed the news at least of the some of the time also remained low, ranging between 30% and 40% among the top three political affiliations. The percentage of individuals who "now and then/ hardly" keep up with their government was highest among those classified as non-partisan voters/other (30%), making them the most disengaged group compared to Republicans and Democrats.
The trend of how much California voters as a whole are following public activities has been on the decline since 1979, the Field study notes. As the amount of California voters who kept up with their government, either most or some of the time, has gone down, the amount of those who keep up now and then or hardly at all has been on the rise over this same time period.
As for the source of their news, a majority (56%) of Californians get their news from television. Following television, 44% of the state's registered voters get their information from the internet. Newspapers, radio, magazines, and other media follow far behind these two influential news mediums in the state. As for the type of news consumed, CNN was the most-watched source for Democrats and non-partisans. Meanwhile, Fox News was the primary source for the state's Republicans.
While the Tea Party might have only a small presence in the Golden State, what's indicated by this poll is that it is one of the most engaged voter groups. Let's hope that more voters will rise up in order to hold both Democrats and Republicans accountable for California's current woes.