Ryan Streeter
Yesterday, we released our first inaugural 2012 Republican presidential tracking poll with the Daily Caller.
Since 35% of the respondents in the poll are self-identified "Tea Partiers" (58% say they sympathize with the Tea Party but are not "partiers" themselves), I thought it would be interesting to see how only the Tea Partiers responded on three of the six questions we asked: who will win in 2012, who will do the best job on the economy, and who will keep Washington's spending under control.
Chris Christie is the clear winner. Below are the results. "Overall" means the percentage of the entire group of respondents in the poll, as we reported yesterday. "Tea Party" signifies the percentage of only Tea Partiers.
Who is the most likely to win in 2012?
Tea Party Overall
Romney 21% 27%
Christie 18% 15%
Gingrich 13% 12%
Pawlenty/Huckabee 10% 6/10%
Who would do the best job on the economy?
Tea Party Overall
Christie 25% 16%
Trump 23% 14%
Palin 16% 7%
Romney 15% 15%
Gingrich 13% 10%
Who would do the best job keeping Washington's spending under control?
Tea Party Overall
Christie 27% 20%
Palin 22% 10%
Paul/Bachmann 18% 10/9%
Gingrich/Trump 14% 11/9%
It may be unfair to the others for us to include Christie, since he has repeatedly said he is not running in 2012. Unlike erstwhile potential candidates Mike Pence and John Thune, who released official statements saying they would not seek the nomination, Christie has made his comments off-the-cuff in public forums...and so we're leaving him in the mix for now.
Among Tea Partiers, Christie's gains on 2012 electability is partially responsible for Romney's decline.
On the economy, Tea Partiers trust Christe over Romney by a wide, 10-point margin, compared to the overal conservative base, which had them virtually tied. Trump, as it turns out, is also a Tea Party favorite on the economy.
On spending, Christie also experienced a sizeable jump. Sarah Palin did, as well, but this is less surprising given her popularity in the Tea Party ranks.
It appears that self-described Tea Partiers are attracted to tough-talking, idiosyncratic potential candidates. For example, just look at how Trump "trumps" Romney on the economy. They were virtually tied among conservatives in general, but Tea Parties prefer the tough-talking "You're Fired!" Trump to the successful Bain CEO Romney.
I said yesterday Christie should run. If he does, it looks like he has the support of likely conservative voters across the board.
mmm...funny how Walker in Wisconsin is actually taking the fight to the left in Wisconsin whereas Christie has only built on what corzine was doing in NJ. He has made a lot of noise over teachers via youtube but has steered clear of antagonising the big public unions.
You don't seem to know too much about the NJ background, Mr Streeter...cant help thinking there is another agenda at work here....Jeb Bush, maybe?
Christie not so popular on his own turf
http://www.newjerseynewsroom.com/state/poll-new-jerseyans-opinion-of-gov-christie-has-dropped-10-points
Dan Riehl pegs Christie as a phoney
http://www.riehlworldview.com/carnivorous_conservative/2011/03/chris-christie-a-bigger-wimp-than-insta-glenn.html
Posted by: callingallcomets | March 17, 2011 at 11:55 AM