middle of the protest crowd for a few days now. casey joins us live just ahead here on cnn. let s go to casey now. casey, what are you seeing now? we understand that there were tea partiers that were going to come together and then also these protesters. they met today. what happened? reporter: yeah, it s been an incredible day, don, here. we just spoke to local police and they said they had more than 1 h 100,000 people here on both sides of this controversial issue here at the wisconsin state capitol. we ve still got some protesters behind us, but what drew the big crowds today is the fact that the tea party, which is supporting wisconsin governor scott walker and his efforts to take power away from the state unions and try to balance the state s budget, they showed up in big numbers. so the unions, the teachers and others who stand to lose their collective bargaining rights, many of them, and have to contribute more for health and pension benefits, they showed up in large numbers