Yakima Tea Party Rally, April 10, 2010.
  • E.S.
  • Yakima Tea Party Rally, April 10, 2010.

Building on more general results released last month, today the Washington Poll zooms in and takes a look at the Tea Party in this state.

It finds that 19 percent of Washingtonians are Tea Party "true believers." No surprise, among these true believers huge majorities think the state is on the wrong track (80 percent), disapprove of Democratic Governor Christine Gregoire (86 percent), dislike the job the state legislature's doing (74 percent), dislike the job the U.S. Congress is doing (86 percent), are pissed about the passage of health care reform (88 percent), and are glad Washington Attorney General Rob McKenna is trying to take health care reform apart via legal action (84 percent).

Oh, and they disapprove of our state's new taxes on candy, beer, and cigarettes (75 percent), and strongly agree with Tim Eyman that all tax increases should have to be approved by a 2/3 majority of the legislature (79 percent).

The most surprising finding: While national Democrats have argued that Republican Dino Rossi will have to move to the right over the next few months in order to pull support from rival Senate candidate (and Tea Party darling) Clint Didier, the poll found that Rossi already gets 81 percent of the Tea Party true believers in a head-to-head match-up with incumbent Patty Murray. (And, that those true believers will basically vote for anyone who challenges her as a Republican; 78 percent said they would support a generic Republican candidate against Murray.)

The least surprising findings: The ones in the agree/disagree section, from which we learn that only 23 percent of Tea Party true believers agree with the statement "Welcoming immigrants to US society, even immigrants who entered illegally makes America better off in the long run"; only 18 percent agree with the statement "Gay and lesbian couples should have the same legal right to marry as straight couples"; and 78 percent disagree with the statement "Over the past few years, blacks have gotten less than they deserve."

On Arizona's new immigration law, 88 percent of true believers say they approve of its passage.

The methodological details: Field dates: May 3 — May 28, 2010. Overall sample size = 1,695, margin of error +/- 2.3.