Poll: Republican Support for Tea Party Heightens

A new Wall Street Journal/NBC poll finds that 71 percent of Republicans support the tea party movement. They have a favorable image of the movement and/or hope tea-party candidates will succeed in November’s elections, The Wall Street Journal reports.

Tea-party supporters account for a third of the voters most likely to participate in the elections, according to the poll. Even Democratic pollster Peter Hart, who helped conduct the survey, says this shows the tea-party movement "isn't a small little segment, but it is a huge part of what's driving 2010."

There is one piece of bad news for Republicans in the poll. Voters now favor Republican control of Congress by a three-percentage-point margin of 46 to 43 percent, down from nine points a month ago.