Poll: Tea Party influence likely in 2012

WASHINGTON, Dec. 20 (UPI) -- The 2010 elections may have been a warm-up for the Tea Party, with U.S. voters saying the movement will flex its muscles in 2012, Rasmussen Reports said.

Forty-one percent of voters said they think the Tea Party will play a larger role in campaigns leading to the 2012 presidential campaign, while 30 percent said they expect its role in 2012 to be about the same, results released Monday indicate.

Twenty-one percent said the movement would play a smaller role in the 2012 political campaigns.

Not surprisingly, 79 percent of self-identified Tea Party supporters said they expected their movement to play a larger role in the 2012 campaigns, while only 5 percent said they thought its role would be smaller, Rasmussen Reports said.

Those stating they had no ties to the Tea Party were more mixed -- 30 percent said the movement's role will be bigger next year, 26 percent said it would be smaller and 35 percent about the same.

Results are based on a nationwide survey of 1,000 likely voters conducted Wednesday and Thursday. The margin of error is 3 percentage points.