Running under the Tea Party brand may be better in congressional races than being a Republican.
In a three-way Generic Ballot test, the latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds Democrats attracting 36% of the vote. The Tea Party candidate picks up 23%, and Republicans finish third at 18%. Another 22% are undecided.
Among voters not affiliated with either major party, the Tea Party comes out on top. Thirty-three percent (33%) prefer the Tea Party candidate, and 30% are undecided. Twenty-five percent (25%) would vote for a Democrat, and just 12% prefer the GOP.
Among Republican voters, 39% say they’d vote for the GOP candidate, but 33% favor the Tea Party option.
For this survey, the respondents were asked to assume that the Tea Party movement organized as a new political party. In practical terms, it is unlikely that a true third-party option would perform as well as the polling data indicates. The rules of the election process—written by Republicans and Democrats--provide substantial advantages for the two established major parties. The more conventional route in the United States is for a potential third-party force to overtake one of the existing parties.
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The standard Generic Congressional Ballot shows Republicans holding a modest lead over Democrats. It appears that the policies of the Obama administration and the Democratic Congress are currently enough to unite both those who prefer Republicans and those who prefer the Tea Party route.
Data from the Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll shows that just 55% of conservatives nationwide consider themselves Republicans. Recent polling shows that 73% of Republican voters believe their leaders in Washington are out of touch with the party base.
Republican voters are paying a lot more attention to the Tea Party movement than anyone else. Forty-three percent (43%) of GOP voters are following news about the movement Very Closely. Another 30% are following it Somewhat Closely. Just 12% of Democrats are following stories about the Tea Party movement Very Closely.
Seventy percent (70%) of Republican voters have a favorable opinion of the Tea Party movement while only seven percent (7%) offer an unfavorable view. Interestingly, 49% of Democrats have no opinion one way or the other.
Among unaffiliated voters, 43% have a favorable opinion of the Tea Party efforts while 20% say the opposite.
Forty-one percent (41%) of all voters nationwide say Republicans and Democrats are so much alike that a new party is needed to represent the American people. Republicans are evenly divided on this question, while Democrats overwhelmingly disagree. However, among those not affiliated with either major party, 60% agree that a new party is needed, and only 25% disagree. Men are far more likely than women to believe a new party is needed.
As for the voting preference, the Tea Party bests the GOP among both men and women and in all age groups except those over 65.
The Tea Party candidates are the first choice among political conservatives. Among moderates, the Tea Party candidates are more popular than Republicans. However, nearly half of all moderate voters prefer a Democrat.
Among the Political Class, not a single respondent picked the Tea Party candidate.
However, among those with populist or Mainstream views, 31% prefer the Tea Party, and 26% are undecided. Twenty-three percent (23%) pick a Republican candidate, and 19% are for the Democrat (See more on the Political Class-Mainstream divide).
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Brad Littlefield
December 7, 2009, 3:42pm
Guest User
The Republican party needs to return to its conservative values and ideals to bring conservative Republicans and Independents back among their supporters. This ideological rift must be addressed now or our country will continue its rapid descent to socialism and worse.
Republicans in elected office at the state and federal level must assert themselves in calling for decreases in the size, cost, and power of government. There must be action taken to demand accountability of elected officials, public employees and government agencies.
The tea party supporters will return to be among the Republican party supporters if and when there is tangible evidence of a change, a move to the right, of the Republican party. Without that, the results of the 2010 elections will be disastrous.
It is time that we begin to work to address this rift. I offer myself to serve in whatever capacity that I am needed to advance this cause.
The reps are just as greedy and self indulgent as the dems. They are clearly mostly all self absorbed and power driven. Bush was clearly no conservative when it came to his first bail out. And did nothing substantial about securing our boarders when he was in office. Pataki did nothing for NYS when he and the reps were in power.
The rep party has no choice but to take the lead of the true Tea Party movement. Not the other way around. It should be the Tea Party who should select the candidates for the reps. Again, the reps need to join the tea party movement....not the other way around.
When the INSANE are running the ASYLUM In individuals, insanity is rare; but in groups, parties, nations and epochs, it is the rule. -- Friedrich Nietzsche
“How fortunate for those in power that people never think.” Adolph Hitler
Socialism isn't just from Democrats.....it's the way to 'keep the masses comfortable' until a system of 'pseudo independence' can be established that the masses will have faith in......
it is still a system(very base) of the fight between the weak and the strong......but it permeates everything we do/think.....
remember politicians/electeds/legal legislators come from this very system too......they all eat at the same trough....goal:keep the masses in the status quo.....
...you are a product of your environment, your environment is a product of your priorities, your priorities are a product of you......
The replacement of morality and conscience with law produces a deadly paradox.
STOP BEING GOOD DEMOCRATS---STOP BEING GOOD REPUBLICANS--START BEING GOOD AMERICANS
Individuals with conservative values are needed to run in 2010 (NYS and US Congressional offices) and the 2011 local elections.
I am compiling a list of people who have interest in campaigning for elected office. These candidates may appear on an independent ballot line, such as the No New Tax Party, or on a minor party ballot line. This does not preclude the candidate from running on a major party line if they receive the endorsement.
If you possess conservative values and ideals and would be interested in working with me and others in creating a Tea Party political party and promoting conservative candidates on indepedent ballot lines, please contact me. You can either PM me or send an email to belittlefield@hughes.net.
I like the positions of several who post to this forum. I believe that you would represent well your constituents with integrity and honor.
Voting out incumbents who are more than one term is a good start. I do believe in giving someone another term if they want to run again, but that's it. Given the outcome of Uncle Joe, we need to make sure no one gets that entrenched in an elected position. We got rid of an aristocracy rule in 1776. We need to trim government costs and streamline our processes as much as we can. People cannot always look to government to solve their problems. We need to encourage civic-minded people to get involved. We have become a society that only pays attention when something hits our wallets or our own neighborhood. We need people to look at the big picture for the community not just what is in it for themselves.
Tea Party radicals gear up for 2010 elections Joe Garofoli, Chronicle Staff Writer Sunday, December 13, 2009
Organizers of the conservative Tea Party movement are forging plans to translate the anger that fueled nationwide anti-tax rallies and town hall protests into an electoral force that can boot incumbents in next year's midterm elections.
Their targets range from big names like Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., and Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., to county assessors.
The East Bay Freedom Fighters, a Tea Party group based in the Pleasanton area, is already vetting 43 Bay Area candidates, many of them first time office-seekers. Other branches in California are gathering signatures for a ballot initiative that would restrict the political clout of unions.
Those sympathetic to the Tea Party and the 912 Project - nine principles and 12 values including God, marriage, freedom, honesty and thrift - trumpeted by Fox News commentator Glenn Beck are forming political action committees and rallying around screenings of the newly released "Tea Party: The Documentary Film."
But the biggest challenge facing the movement is how to organize hundreds of local groups, and dozens of Tea Party leaders nationwide with divergent interests, into a force that can influence elections - and how to fund that effort.
"It's a hard question to answer," said Mark Meckler, a Grass Valley (Nevada County) attorney who is a national coordinator for Tea Party Patriots, which claims to reach 15 million people nationwide. "We are a leaderless movement and that's a good thing. I don't think you're going to see a unified movement yet."
Tea Party organizers acknowledge that most people in the movement are conservative but the group is open to supporting candidates of any party - even conservative Democrats - who adhere to their message of limited government.
There is a growing impatience brewing nationally. More people (23 percent) supported a generic Tea Party candidate than a Republican (18 percent) in a Rasmussen Poll released last week, while 36 percent of those surveyed supported a Democrat. The rest were undecided.
op reaching out
"Any incumbent is in trouble," said Sharon Ferrell, who chairs the East Bay Freedom Fighters, which claims 150 members.
While the California Republican Party initially distanced itself from the Tea Partiers, it is looking for ways to include them at their convention in March, and plans to meet with local groups in January, state GOP Chief Operating Officer Brent Lowder said.
"If we were arrogant and assumed they were with us, that could be deadly," Lowder said. "We are ready to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with them."
isappointment in race
But there is "zero excitement" in the Tea Party for any of the three Republican candidates for California governor, said Joe Wierzbicki, the Sacramento-based national coordinator for the Tea Party Express, a bus tour that held 90 rallies nationwide.
Next year, the group hopes to raise at least $5 million to focus on 15 to 20 congressional races, particularly on Reid's, Wierzbicki said.
"There are two battles that are going to happen for the Tea Party, and one is over the Republican Party," he added.
While some Tea Party supporters disparage President Obama as a "socialist," and compare him to Adolf Hitler, behind-the-scenes organizers are studying the grassroots training methods of the late Saul Alinsky, the community organizer known for campus protests in the 1960s, and who inspired the structure of Obama's presidential campaign.
"Among younger Tea Partiers, you see more of a libertarian streak," said Nathan Mintz, a 26-year-old engineer and Alinsky devotee who chairs the South Bay Tea Party south of Los Angeles.
omparison to peace rallies
Mintz, who is pro-choice and favors same-sex marriage, was among several organizers who compared the Tea Party to the anti-war movement in the wake of the 2004 elections.
Although the range of peace groups - including MoveOn and Code Pink - differed on issues and tactics, their drumbeat of opposition to former President George W. Bush eventually blossomed into a coalition that helped Democrats take over Congress in 2006.
But Tea Party organizer Brendan Steinhauser, director of federal and state campaigns for Freedom Works, a Washington, D.C., organization that promoted the movement's early rallies, said uniting factions has "been like herding cats at times."
His group will focus "on four to five U.S. Senate races" next year. "Nobody has the time or resources to organize all of it. And there are a lot of people (in the movement) who don't want to be involved in politics yet."
alin at national convention
Some Tea Party adherents believe that a national convention scheduled for February in Tennessee will provide some focus for the group. The keynote speaker: Former Alaska Gov. and vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin.
But one Tea Party branch doesn't plan to attend the national gathering.
"It's too expensive for a lot of our members," said Meckler of the Tea Party Patriots. "We're a grassroots organization."
When the INSANE are running the ASYLUM In individuals, insanity is rare; but in groups, parties, nations and epochs, it is the rule. -- Friedrich Nietzsche
“How fortunate for those in power that people never think.” Adolph Hitler
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