GOP had Better Wake up and Smell the Realpolitik: Teaparty Could Hurt Candidates
This isn’t just any pollster saying it either: it’s a strategic party pollster, one of those trying to figure out how to keep the GOP ahead in the next election.
Beware, Florida Republicans: The tea party movement that swept you into office in 2010 could cost you the next election.
That’s the takeaway message from Republican pollster and consultant Alex Patton, who conducted a recent survey showing that, by 2-1, registered Florida voters said the tea party movement did not represent their views.
The sentiment against the tea party is significantly higher among self-described independent voters, who swing elections in Florida and who looked unfavorably on the tea party by 3-1, the poll showed. Only Republican voters favored the tea party movement, with 68 percent in support and less than 20 percent opposed.
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“There’s a real danger to Republican candidates,” said Patton, a founder of the Gainesville-based War Room Logistics polling firm.
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“If, in a primary race statewide, a candidate hugs the tea party too tightly in order to win the primary,” he said, “it significantly causes you issues in a general election.”