Is the crowded Republican field hurting the party?

George Pataki announced his candidacy for the Republican nomination today. That makes for a large field of Repubicans. While most of them seem to more or less have the same message, some do have clear differences. I have to wonder of this hurts them later as surely leading up to the Parties actual Nomination their will be mud slinging, lots of money spent, divided voters. The other interesting thing is most of them identify with the Tea Party which while the Republicans made gains in the mid terms , the Tea Party itself lost seats to more moderate Republicans.