Politics / Tea Party Tea Party Has Lots of 'Closet' Fans Among supporters, 40% say they wouldn't attend an event By Kevin Spak, Newser Staff Posted Sep 16, 2010 2:13 PM CDT Copied People attend the "Gateway to November" rally hosted by the St. Louis Tea Party and Tea Party Patriots Sunday, Sept. 12, 2010, at the Gateway Arch in St. Louis. (AP Photo/St. Louis Post-Dispatch, David Carson) The Tea Party has a lot of silent admirers out there. In a new Christian Science Monitor poll, 44% of respondents said they saw the movement in a favorable light, even though 40% of those supporters said they’d never attend a Tea Party event. “The general party line says the Tea Party is fringe," says one pollster, “but I think most of the public hasn’t bought that.” The movement remains hugely divisive however; 41% hold an unfavorable view of it. For other Tea Party news, click here. (More Tea Party stories.) Report an error