UPDATED: Hammering On the GOP’s Tea Party Connection Pays Dividends in North Carolina

In a report from Public Policy Polling, the Democratic Party in North Carolina may have hit upon a strategy to ensure Democratic electoral success in 2012. Don’t run against the GOP, run against the TeaOP!  The growing unpopularity of the Tea Party will continue to serve as an excellent lever against Republicans.

This was not a race where Democrats played nice- they took the fight to the Republican candidates and exploited their close ties to an increasingly unpopular Tea Party movement. And it worked, in a district where Democratic victory once seemed unimaginable. Democrats will more than likely take back the majority in a November 8th runoff election in a separate district where the party’s candidate won by 10 points yesterday, but fell short of an outright majority. And they did it by running against the Tea Party.

This is precisely the tactic we need to take during the Walker campaign.  We need to hammer hard on the support he has received from the TeaOP.  Their rallies should provide excellent media fodder for slamming Walker and his cronies for their close ties to these unpopular extremists.  The Recall must run against the Tea Party, not just Walker and the GOP.  If they do that, we’ll lose.  But if we can wrap walker tightly up with a Gasden Flag in one hand and a wet teabag in the other, then we will win.

PPP polling in key swing states has consistently found that the Tea Party is very unpopular- its favorability is 41/49 in Florida, 40/46 in Missouri, 40/48 in North Carolina, 37/47 in Ohio, and 38/49 in Colorado, just to name a few. And even in red leaning states like Kentucky (40/46) and South Carolina (41/42) being associated with the Tea Party is not a good thing. It was a potent message for Democrats in Wake County Tuesday night. And it could be a potent message for Democrats everywhere across the country next year.

Update: New data from PPP extend the question of support to the Occupy Wall Street movement.

Americans aren’t big on either the Occupy Wall Street movement or the Tea Party…but if they have to pick one or the other they’ll take Occupy Wall Street.

[Independent] voters support the OWS goals by a 39/34 margin, but oppose the Tea Party’s goals by a 37/49 spread.
Neither of these movements have any sort of crossover appeal, but for now the Tea Party has much bigger issues with the center than Occupy Wall Street does.