80% of Tea Party will vote Republican
Bloomberg reports:
Tea Party activists, once on the fringe of the Republican mainstream, are fueling the party’s momentum in the midterm elections, a Bloomberg National poll shows.
Four of five Tea Party supporters who say they plan to vote in the November congressional elections will back Republicans, even though one-third describe themselves as independents. Eighty-five percent of these respondents say the economy will improve with Republicans in control of Congress.
These Super Republicans are more energized than other likely voters and more apt to view this election as exceptionally important. Tea Party backers who plan to vote put a higher priority than other voters on cutting spending and lowering taxes. They also favor making people wait longer to receive full Social Security benefits and slashing money for research of Alzheimer’s and other diseases as a way to narrow the deficit.
The members of this fiscally conservative movement take a darker view of the economy than most voters in the poll. Half say they have no confidence they will have sufficient funds to live on in retirement and more than half worry their children’s quality of life will be worse than their own.
“I am nervous for my grandson,” says poll respondent Cindy Young, 55, a dairy farmer in Wisconsin who describes herself as a Tea Party supporter. “He’s only two years old and I feel he has no chance in this world if it keeps on this way.”
Overall, about one-third of all likely voters in the poll conducted Oct. 7-10 by Selzer & Co. say they support the Tea Party.
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