15 Tea Party Caucus freshmen rake in $3.5 million in first 9 months in Washington

'Business as usual,' one election watchdog says.

By Aaron Mehta and Bob Biersack
6:00 am, November 18, 2011 Updated: 10:36 am, November 18, 2011

 

On her website, Rep. Diane Black asks constituents to join advisory panels in her Tennessee district. “I believe the best ideas to solve our nation’s problems will come from people like you,” Black writes, “not Washington bureaucrats and special interest groups.”

Black is one of the new Republicans who rode a wave of anti-Washington sentiment into town in 2011, a self-identified member of the tea party wing that has been cast as a new kind of conservative— fiery, unwilling to compromise and determined to downsize the government. But while many say Black and her companions have created a split in the Republican Party, it is not visible among the companies and interest groups that are donating to members of Congress.