In a three-way Generic Ballot test, the latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds Democrats attracting 36% of the vote. The Tea Party candidate picks up 23%, and Republicans finish third at 18%. Another 22% are undecided.
Among voters not affiliated with either major party, the Tea Party comes out on top. Thirty-three percent (33%) prefer the Tea Party candidate, and 30% are undecided. Twenty-five percent (25%) would vote for a Democrat, and just 12% prefer the GOP.
Among Republican voters, 39% say they’d vote for the GOP candidate, but 33% favor the Tea Party option.
For this survey, the respondents were asked to assume that the Tea Party movement organized as a new political party. In practical terms, Rasmussen says it is unlikely that a true third-party option would perform as well as the polling data indicates. The rules of the election process—written by Republicans and Democrats–provide substantial advantages for the two established major parties. The more conventional route in the United States is for a potential third-party force to overtake one of the existing parties.
Data from the Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll shows that just 55% of conservatives nationwide consider themselves Republicans. Recent polling shows that 73% of Republican voters believe their leaders in Washington are out of touch with the party base.
Republican voters are paying a lot more attention to the Tea Party movement than anyone else. Forty-three percent (43%) of GOP voters are following news about the movement Very Closely. Another 30% are following it Somewhat Closely. Just 12% of Democrats are following stories about the Tea Party movement Very Closely.
Seventy percent (70%) of Republican voters have a favorable opinion of the Tea Party movement while only seven percent (7%) offer an unfavorable view. 49% of Democrats have no opinion one way or the other.
Among unaffiliated voters, 43% have a favorable opinion of the Tea Party efforts while 20% say the opposite.
Forty-one percent (41%) of all voters nationwide say Republicans and Democrats are so much alike that a new party is needed to represent the American people. Republicans are evenly divided on this question, while Democrats overwhelmingly disagree. However, among those not affiliated with either major party, 60% agree that a new party is needed, and only 25% disagree. Men 
are far more likely than women to believe a new party is needed.
I think this says a lot of the Tea Party. And I agree with the Rasmussen summation that it would be to the parties advantage to overtake the Republican Party. I personally believe the Republican party has bankrupted itself on its issue and morals. But, I would say the same about the Democratic Party, but it really seems directionless at this point and I still hold firm to the conviction that Obama’s win was not based on anything political as much as it was personality. The Democratic Party will reap bad results from that.
Victoria Jackson was critical of Democrats during the 2008 general election campaign, particularly presidential nominee Senator Barack Obama and Minnesota U.S. senatorial candidate (and fellow SNL alumnus) Al Franken. In October, she appeared in a National Republican Senatorial Committee ad with other celebrities poking fun at Franken, then followed up with an interview on The O’Reilly Factor, where she called Obama a “communist.”
