A new Pew Research Poll finds Mitt Romney has support of a plurality of Tea Party members:

“Twenty four percent of Tea Party backers have named the former Massachusetts Governor as the number one choice as a potential GOP presidential contender, the New York Daily News reports.

Romney beat out Tea Party favorites by double digits; Ron Paul received 13 percent and Palin received 12 percent. Former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee garnered 19 percent of the Tea Partiers’ support, while former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich received 15 percent.”

This is consistent with previous polls measuring which potential 2012 candidates tea partiers support. An earlier Mitt Romney Central article, “Who Says Tea Partiers Don’t Support Mitt Romney?!“, points out that the former Governor of Massachusetts has consistently had strong support of Tea Party members.

Lets do a quick poll review. Last September, a McClatchy poll showed favorable numbers for Romney among Tea Party supporters on a national level:

Voters who call themselves conservative preferred Romney to Palin. So did self-described supporters of the tea party movement; 25 percent preferred Romney and 19 percent Palin.”

A Marist poll (released November 2010) shows Romney edging out potential rivals with 19% of Tea Party support, compared to Huckabee’s 17% and Palin’s 16%, respectively.

Finally, a  New Hampshire poll also indicates strong Tea Party support for Mitt Romney:

“In a new WMUR poll, [Romney's] favorability among supporters of the Tea Party is strikingly high – 77 percent and far exceeds any other [potential] candidate.

Romney’s fiscal message of reducing taxes and cutting spending resonates with Tea Party philosophy.

Among New Hampshire Tea Party supporters, Romney’s favorability numbers were far higher than even candidates who are viewed as closely aligned with the movement, such as Sarah Palin, Ron Paul, and Newt Gingrich.”

The Washington Post explains that Mitt Romney is gaining support across the wide spectrum of conservatives:

“The Pew poll comes less than two weeks after a Washington Post/ABC News survey showed Romney running strong among the party’s conservatives; more than seven in 10 Republicans who described themselves as “very” conservative had a favorable opinion of Romney.

“In the Pew survey, Romney’s numbers are not only strong among tea party types but across the board. He took 20 percent among self-identified conservatives — tied with Huckabee for first — and 23 percent among moderate-to-liberal GOPers. The only group where Romney lagged even slightly was among white evangelical Protestants, where he received 15 percent to Huckabee’s 29 percemt

The Pew and Post results — coming so close to one another — seem to make clear that Romney, who has largely been cast as an establishment pick, has wider reach within the party than first imagined. It’s not entirely clear where Romney’s power among tea party activists originates, although his strong fiscal conservatism likely endears him to that bloc of voters.”

Romney is the ideal candidate for conservatives, moderates, independents, tea partiers and even those liberals concerned about the fiscal health of our nation. They know he has experience in lifting companies out of debt. More importantly, they know he pulled Massachusetts out of debt.

When Gov Romney took office in 2003, he faced a massive deficit of approximately $3 billion. However, he was able to balance the state budget for each year of his administration by implementing a mixture of aggressive reduction in the size and cost of government, along with bold strategies to spur economic growth.