Tea Party Supported by One in Five in New CBS News/NYT Poll

CBS News Poll analysis by the CBS News Polling Unit: Sarah Dutton, Jennifer De Pinto, Fred Backus and Anthony Salvanto.

Despite the movement's rallies and some victories in primary races this year, many Americans remain unfamiliar with the Tea Party, a new CBS News/ New York Times poll shows.

As many as 47 percent of registered voters nationwide say they are undecided or haven't heard enough about the Tea Party movement to have an opinion about it, according to the poll, conducted Sept. 10-14.

Late last month, Tea Party supporters pulled off a surprising upset in Alaska, where their preferred candidate, Joe Miller, defeated Incumbent Sen. Lisa Murkowski in the Republican primary.

Even more surprising, however, were the Tea Party's victories in yesterday's primaries. Tea Party-backed Christine O'Donnell bested Rep. Mike Castle for the Republican Senate nomination in Delaware, Carl Paladino won the GOP gubernatorial nomination in New York, and an upstart conservative in New Hampshire is running neck-and-neck with the establishment candidate for the state's GOP Senate nomination.

Nationally, however, the CBS/ New York Times poll shows that among those with an opinion, more view the Tea Party unfavorably (29 percent) than favorably (23 percent).

Just 19 percent of Americans in this poll say they support the Tea Party movement, while 63 percent say they do not. However, this small group of supporters is politically active.

As many as 84 percent of them say they are registered to vote, and 88 percent say they will definitely vote this November. Most (73 percent) are conservative.

Fifty-four percent of Tea Party supporters identify themselves as Republicans, and 38 percent say they are independents. Less than one in 10 says they are Democrats.

More on yesterday's primaries:

What is the Tea Party Movement?
Christine O'Donnell Win Changes Senate Outlook, Makes GOP Senate Takeover Less Likely
Karl Rove: Christine O'Donnell Says "Nutty Things;" O'Donnell Fires Back
Washington Unplugged: Tea Party Coup
Mike Castle Won't Endorse Christine O'Donnell
Christine O'Donnell Wins, and the GOP Loses
O'Donnell: "The People of Del. Have Spoken"
Carl Paladino's Controversial Statements Could Embarrass Republicans
CBSNews.com Special Report: Campaign 2010

7 Photos

Virgins, Masturbation, AIDS: You Won't Believe What Tea Party Says

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This poll was conducted among a random sample of 990 adults nationwide, interviewed by telephone September 10-14, 2010. Phone numbers were dialed from random digit dial samples of both standard land-line and cell phones. 777 interviews were conducted among registered voters. The error due to sampling for results based on the entire sample could be plus or minus three percentage points, and plus or minus four points for voters. The error for subgroups is higher.

This poll release conforms to the Standards of Disclosure of the National Council on Public Polls.

[corlyss_d]

Well, after the NYT messed itself with that poll in March that demonstrated, to their shock and dismay, that the Tea Partiers were better educated and made more money than the average American, the NYT had to try to regain their credibility with a poll that proves - ta da! - the vast majority of people don't like the Tea Partiers. I'm convinced that this time they were sure of the answers before they asked the question. <g>

[FreedomFan]

According to SeeBS and the New Yuk Times, only 19% support the Tea Party movement, whereas 63% don't. But the credibility of this claim is strained by comparing it with a similar poll by the Christian Science Monitor/TIPP which found that 44% supported the Tea Party -- more than 2x as many.

http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Election-2010/2010/0915/Tea-party-is-polarizing-but-has-many-closet-admirers-poll-finds

Back in March, a Gallup poll showed 37 percent of Americans saw the movement in a favorable light versus 40 percent who didn't.

So SeeBS and NYT say less that half as many support the Tea Party as other polls. Gee who to believe ... I mean the MSM has never showed any bias in their support of the Obammunists, have they?

Gee with such weak support it is surprising that almost all of the Tea Party candidates seem to be winning. Simply astounding, huh Stephanie?

[FreedomFan]

The accuracy of the CBS/NYT polling is dismal:

In the final Presidential poll of 2008, they ranked 19 out of 20 in accuracy. Number one was Rassmussen.

http://www.fordham.edu/images/academics/graduate_schools/gsas/elections_and_campaign_/poll%20accuracy%20in%20the%202008%20presidential%20election.pdf

[FreedomFan]

This article is very misleading. Notice that there is no link to the actual survey. Here it is: http://s3.amazonaws.com/nytdocs/docs/483/483.pdf

Here is a pertinent response that Stephanie Condon omitted:

76. Is your opinion of the Tea Party movement favorable, not favorable, undecided, or haven't you heard enough about the Tea Party movement yet to have an opinion?

9/10-14/10
Favorable 20
Not fav. 25
Undecided 18
Haven?t heard enough 36
Refused 1

So the logical conclusion is that the majority of people who responded that they do not support the Tea Party movement actually are undecided, because only 25% of respondents have an unfavorable opinion of the Tea Party. Opinion is basically split with one in 5 favoring the movement and one in 4 not favoring.

Also note that a most folks are against ObamaCare: 49% to 37% and those against strongly favor repeal.

[jackpatzer]

Funny story about the Tea Party movement at http://newspile.weebly.com/. If you like it, feel free to re-post.

[tiredofeverything]

The same 1 in 5 that believe the sun revolves around the Earth

[imthaid]

Four in five DON'T support tea party movement. That sounds a little better.

[brycecovert]

They may not be such quite a big majority. But I think they are an incarnation of anger that the majority of Americans feel about the economy. Their leaders make crazy comments, but we can't ignore the fact that most Americans haven't seen any economic relief since the beginning of this recession. Dems will pay for that if they can't fix it. Great analysis here: http://www.newdeal20.org/2010/09/15/tea-party-repubs-in-disarray-or-dems-in-denial-20223/

[imthaid]

You mean Dems will pay for what Reps broke?

[stormerF3]

Is that where they conducted the poll,at CBS,New York Times?

[noloyalisti]

It is shocking there really is that many wacko, racist white people who have bought into the paranoia of Republican propaganda from the likes of Fake Noise Channel.

[stormerF3]

Your koolaid is dribbling again,stop drooling,CBS conducted a poll at the New York Times or was it the other way?

[imthaid]

It's not shocking at all. These tea party morons are the same people who voted for bush. So, of course they want to shift the blame on someone else.

[starving1968-3]

by brian1920 September 15, 2010 2:01 PM EDT
NYT/CBS poll? Does anybody believe any of this? Those two organizations have ZERO credibility for reporting facts.







Right, we should ONLY listen to Rasmussen / Fox News and their polls that add up to 120%, right?