The honeymoon between Republican U.S. Senate Ron Johnson, who at one point was considered the “Tea Party” candidate, and the state’s various Tea Party groups may be officially over. After Johnson had a really bad vetting session with the Rock River Patriots, he started avoiding the various Tea Party groups in the state like the plague, and some straw poll numbers released by two of the state’s Tea Party organizations show that they’re clearly not enthusiastic about Johnson’s candidacy.
The Wisconsin 9/12 Project’s straw poll has Dave Westlake, Johnson’s opponent in the Republican U.S. Senate primary, garnering 95% of the vote to Johnson’s paltry 5%, while a straw poll conducted of members of the Vilas County Northwoods Patriots had Westlake gaining the support of 98% of those polled, with Johnson managing to get only a meager 2% of the vote.
Obviously these two straw polls aren’t the end all be all, but if I were Ron Johnson I certainly wouldn’t be encouraged to find out that over 95% of folks in two of Wisconsin’s Tea Party groups preferred my opponent. What’s more, these are just the numbers from two of the over 70(?) Tea Party groups across the state, and given Johnson’s poor performance at the Rock River Patriots’ vetting session, I’m willing to bet Ron Johnson wouldn’t garner much in the way of support from those groups either.
A. Rock River Patriots have a really different slant compared to most of the TEA parties. They picked ROB TAYLOR over Westlake at a debate a few months ago. What does that tell you?
B. How many voted in the straw polls? 20 people? Madison 912 group and Northwoods DO NOT speak to what is going on across the state.
C. Many people in the TEA party movement like what they are hearing out of Johnson and aren’t necessarily demanding a vetting session like the Westlake backers are. People are getting to know Ron just fine. Ron is a patriot and a job creator to boot.
D. Lib poll below:
http://publicpolicypolling.blogspot.com/2010/07/wisconsin-gop-primary-numbers.html