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Tuesday will be the first, big test at the polls of the power of Georgia's Tea Party movement, born last year as part of the backlash against the Obama Administration's policies.
And as the weekend before the July 20 Primary Election began, candidates for Governor and Congress and the State Legislature and other offices clamored for Tea Party votes in Cobb County.
"It's obvious these candidates know what kind of impact we can have," said Mike Williams, a board member of the Georgia Tea Party.
He pointed toward the crowds of candidates and voters mingling, talking, shaking hands at the event organized by the Georgia Tea Party.
"This many candidates came a-runnin'. We filled up the entire exhibit hall."
Williams believes that the candidates' perception right now, particularly Republican candidates, is -- they ignore Tea Party power at their peril.
So late Friday afternoon, inside the steambath of an exhibition hall at Jim Miller Park in Cobb County, four of the GOP candidates for Governor -- Jeff Chapman, Nathan Deal, Karen Handel and John Oxendine -- listened, cajoled, and gave the stickers off their shirts to try to identify with voters attracted to the Tea Party meet-and-greet.
Some Democrats ventured into this Tea Party territory, as well.
Other candidates sent surrogates to stand at tables full of brochures.
Just two years ago, the soon-to-be Democratic nominee for President, Barack Obama, was awakening a sleeping giant of an electorate demanding change.
And now, just a few days before Georgia's primary election, Barry and Kristin Smith of Smyrna brought their children to witness part of what they believe is underway -- another sleeping giant waking up demanding another kind of change.
Smaller, more efficient government. Lower taxes.
"There's a lot of people who are being united for the first time, they've just been kind of complacent for too long, especially newer, younger voters," said Kristin Smith. "I think there's power in numbers."
"The Tea Party, in particular, I think -- it's a good way to change America," said Barry Smith.
Georgia's Tea Party movement has matured in a year and a half, to the point where it contains competing factions.
And its collective power to affect change at the polls may finally be fully known not on Tuesday, but in November, according to Rep. Phil Gingrey, (R) GA 11th District, who is running unopposed this year, and attended the Tea Party event to talk with constituents and campaign for other Republicans.
"People are really disgusted, but they're mainly disgusted with the party in power," Gingrey said. "And I think there's going to be a sea change in the Congress come November 2nd."
Mike Williams of the Georgia Tea Party said more and more voters are moving away from party labels, "And many of them are saying, 'I support the Constitution,'" he said.
"We do not believe the Constitution is a fluid, living document. We believe that it was written the way it was for a reason," and, he said, it's that the U.S. should be organized with "the strongest government being at the local level.... Government is always the most responsive when it's right down to the street from where you live."
emphasis is mine, of course
