One year in, Tea Partiers look forward

VIRGINIA BEACH

At this time last year, Tea Party activists were being mocked, Marshall Smith said. They were called racists and extremists, a group of flash-in-the-pan zealots who would have their protest and go away.

The doubters have been proved wrong, Smith told demonstrators gathered at Town Center on Sunday. Celebrating the one-year anniversary of their anti-big-government movement, Smith, a co-founder of the New Republic Patriots group, and others argued that the Tea Party has had a real impact on politics over the past year, both at the local and national levels.

"Last year when we had this, you didn't see very many politicians out here," said Wally Erb, a Virginia Beach resident and blogger. But on Sunday, a slew of candidates - most running for Rep. Glenn Nye's 2nd Congressional District seat - wandered among the crowd, shaking hands.

Now, Erb said, "everybody's trying to hitch to this wagon because it's a rising star."

About 100 people turned out for the anniversary protest. The group was marking the day last year when demonstrations were staged in cities throughout the country to rail against the expansion of federal government.

Demonstrators came Sunday with "Don't Tread on Me" flags and signs protesting government spending and the RINOs - Republicans in Name Only - who voted for it. They listened to speakers who talked about the responsibility of citizens to make their voices heard and not let government take away their freedoms. And they were urged to use the Tea Party's burgeoning political power to even greater ends in the coming year.

The movement has matured since last year and started to develop more purpose, said Hector Falcon, who participated in last year's protest in Virginia Beach. He cited, as an example, a training session the local Tea Party group held Friday to teach activists how to use Internet resources to organize campaigns and contact their representatives.

A year ago, "people were angry and just wanted to vent," he said. "This year, we're more interested in how to effect constructive change."

Alicia Wittmeyer, (757) 222-5216, alicia.wittmeyer@pilotonline.com