Their politics may differ. But both the Tea Party and the Occupy movement have laid claim to representing the interests of the middle class, whose economic frustrations helped spur the groups’ establishment and growth.
So which side’s congressional lawmakers come closest to embodying that wide swath of the U.S. population? Or, in Occupy terms, which side is closer to the 99 percent?
Neither the members of the House Tea Party Caucus nor those of the House Progressive Caucus — whose views most closely align with the Occupy Wall Street movement — are remotely middle class, according to an analysis by the
Center for Responsive Politics of congressional personal financial disclosure forms covering 2010, the most recently available data.
The members of the House Tea Party Caucus are especially wealthy, the Center’s research shows.
The median average net worth of a member of the House Tea Party Caucus was $1.8 million in 2010. (Financial disclosure forms require lawmakers to value their assets and liabilities only in ranges, so it’s impossible to
know exactly how wealthy a particular elected official is. However, it’s possible to calculate an
average net worth for each member of Congress.)
That’s significantly higher than the comparable number for the median House member: $755,000. It’s also more than 130 percent above the $774,280 average net worth of the median, non-Tea Party Caucus House Republican.
Furthermore, the caucus,
a group of 60 House members founded by Rep.
Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.), includes 33 millionaires and six members worth more than $20 million, according to the Center’s research. That means a member of the group is more likely to be a millionaire than the average Republican who isn’t in the caucus.
Christopher Arterton, a professor of political management at George Washington University, called the Republican lawmakers’ personal wealth unsurprising.
“Because they have amassed personal wealth, or inherited it, they are much more likely to be attuned to business or investment as an issue and less friendly towards regulations,” Arterton told
OpenSecrets Blog.
“Their own background leads them to lean ideologically in the direction of business interests and free market.”
The median House Republican, generally speaking, was worth significantly more than the median House Democrat last year: $834,250 versus $635,000.
“The Republican Party is known to be a party that has lots of connections to big business, business interests and the so-called job creators so these people do tend to be more wealthy,” Arterton noted. “So it’s not surprising to me that the Republican members are wealthier than Democratic ones.”
The wealth among the House Tea Party Caucus’s membership ranges from Rep.
Stephen Fincher‘s (R-Tenn.) estimated average net worth of negative $3.3 million to the $49.3 million of the richest member of the group, Rep.
Kenny Marchant (R-Texas).
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Tea Party House Members Even Wealthier Than Other GOP Lawmakers
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both the Giants and the New England Patriots have heavily favored the Democrats with their campaign contributions. The National Football League, on the other hand, has used its political action committee to distribute money more evenly between the two parties. 
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