A very interesting poll was published yesterday by Quinnipiac:
Only 13 percent of American voters say they are part of the Tea Party movement, a group that has more women than men; is mainly white and Republican and voted for John McCain, and strongly supports Sarah Palin, according to a Quinnipiac University national poll released today.
While voters say 44 - 39 percent that they will vote for a Republican over a Democratic candidate in this November's Congressional elections, if there is a Tea Party candidate on the ballot, the Democrat would get 36 percent to the Republican's 25 percent, with 15 percent for the Tea Party candidate, the independent Quinnipiac (KWIN-uh-pe-ack) University poll finds.
And who are these teabaggers, anyway?
Looking at voters who consider themselves part of the Tea Party movement:
- 74 percent are Republicans or independent voters leaning Republican;
- 16 percent are Democrats or independent voters leaning Democratic;
- 5 percent are solidly independent;
- 45 percent are men;
- 55 percent are women;
- 88 percent are white;
- 77 percent voted for Sen. John McCain in 2008;
- 15 percent voted for President Barack Obama.
Oh, yeah, that vote was going to Democrats. Not. And the more Republicans pander to the teabaggers to try and get them back, the more moderates will be turned off. Peter Brown in the WSJ puts it thusly:
Four in five Tea Party members voted for John McCain in the 2008 presidential race, and George W. Bush in 2004. They report being more likely than the national population to vote.
They could be either the bluebird of happiness or an albatross for the Republicans come election time.
If the Tea Party folks are enthusiastic about the GOP candidates they could be a boon to Republicans by driving up turnout. But if Tea Partiers are unhappy and run their own candidates for office, any votes a Tea Party candidate receives would more likely than not come from the GOP column.
How the Republicans decide to handle the crazy is up to them, but my guess is they are to afraid to disown it. In any case, let's drop the pretense that teabaggers are anything close to 'independents':
A new Quinnipiac national poll provides us a detailed look into the composition of the nascent tea party movement. The conclusion? It looks a lot like the Republican party.
Crazy and all.