June 23, 2011 09:25 PM UTC

Tea Party is Slowly Killing Republicans

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• by: Colorado Pols

We’ve written several times in this space that the Tea Party movement of 2010 may end up irreparably damaging the Republican Party. As a new poll out of Florida indicates, the damage is already being done. From The Miami Herald:

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 a 2:1 ratio, 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-to-1, the poll showed. Only Republican voters favored the tea party movement, with 68 percent in support and less than 20 percent opposed.

“There’s a real danger to Republican candidates,” said Patton, a founder of the Gainesville-based War Room Logistics polling firm.

“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.”…

…The survey’s results concerning the tea party in Florida mirror an April USA Today/Gallup poll that showed 47 percent of Americans have an unfavorable view of the tea party – an increase of 7 percentage points in just over a year. Meanwhile, favorable impressions of the tea party nationwide have declined 6 percentage points to 33 percent.

The Herald story goes on to quote Tea Party leaders in the state crowing about how their movement is “growing,” which is precisely the problem for Republicans. The bigger the Tea Party becomes, the more that Republicans have to pander to them in a Primary…which makes them even weaker in a General Election where courting Independent voters is vital. Unless the Tea Party eventually grows large enough to encompass a majority of voters — which is extremely unlikely — this is a sobering trend for the GOP.