Tea party could spell doom after splitting Republicans into thirds, says top GOP strategist

Washington, Nov 5 (ANI): GOP strategist Bill McInturff has said that the tea party has split the Republicans into thirds, and warned that the division could complicate things for the party in the 2012 presidential elections.

McInturff reportedly said that the GOP has been broken into three groups of roughly equal size based on their views of the tea party.

"So you look at a party that is now split into those three groups. This is trouble for the party," The Christian Science Monitor quoted him, as saying.

"You have a third of Republicans who say 'I am not a tea party person.' You have a third of Republicans who say 'I am a Republican and a tea party [person] but when asked, I think of myself more as Republican.' And now you have a third ...that says 'I am a Republican but I really think of myself as a Tea Party person. The groups can vary sharply in terms of "their issue positions and their intensity," McInturff added.

He further stated that currently, tea party self-identifiers are playing a key role in crucial party primaries, and added that in a Republican primary, those Republicans who are tea party persons and think of themselves as tea party, make up about a third right now of our party.

"They make up 40-plus percent of the primary vote or maybe higher ... and believe me they are in a no-compromise stance," he stated further. (ANI)