The East Mountain Tea Party, a group that holds protests on Tax Day, is trying to change things. Agree or disagree with what they stand for, Tea Parties are popping up all over the country, holding signs during elections and they have an effect.

One of the East Mountain group's core members, Doug Cooper, was recruited to protest the bond questions at the March election in Edgewood. When asked about the issue and why he protested, he said he didn't really know all that much about it, but was asked to support opposition to the bond by a business owner.

"It's taxation without representation, is how I see it," he said. "They're just not being careful (in Edgewood)."

He pointed out that, in his view, the town had lost money granted to it from the state Legislature, referring to a large sum of capital outlay money that was canceled by the state government in an effort to make up for a statewide budget shortfall.

The idea is that the town didn't act quickly enough to tie up the money before it was taken away. But Town Administrator Karen Mahalick has maintained that she acted as quickly as she could to use the funds. The funds come with time-consuming stipulations that couldn't be met in time, she said.

Cooper also objected to one of the bond issues because it dealt with roads that would serve only a few residents, but all of them would have to pay. He added that raising property taxes during a recession doesn't seem like a good idea, either.

The protest in Edgewood doesn't mean the East Mountain Tea Party are a group sign-holders-for-hire, though, according to Char Tierney, another key member of the group.

"This time we agreed to do it," she said. "It was ridiculous."

Some of the group's core members — Tierney and Theresa, Emily and Doug Cooper — have said they aren't against any and all taxes either.

They said they would have supported a fire excise tax that was recently defeated by voters. The tax would have been a quarter-cent gross receipts tax increase that would have helped fund fire department equipment and operations for Santa Fe County.

They say their beliefs are in line with those of the nation's founding fathers and the country's constitution.

According to the group's documentation, "Rights are: unalienable (sic), self-evident, and enumerated in Bill of Rights."

The group also states that candidates should support and vote for a balanced budget amendment at the state and federal level. While the nation doesn't have such an amendment, almost every state in the country, including New Mexico, already has some form of balanced budget amendment.

The group calls for a few rather drastic measures in its documentation, such as selling "substantial federal lands" — the government owns about 650 million acres of land, including national parks, forests, and wildlife refuges — which the document says are unconstitutional for the government to own and should be used to pay down the national debt.

The group will be holding a forum on March 21 at the Lions Club in Moriarty from 1 to 3:30 p.m. and has invited a number of candidates and state representatives to attend. For more information go to eastmtteaparty.com.

For those who find themselves on the other side of the aisle, East Mountains for Change — a group that supported the Obama campaign — is becoming more active again. The group is primarily Democrats and Independents according to Ana Amon, who administers their Web page, emforchange.ning.com. A big part of the interest is organizing to do volunteer work, she said.

For the most part, the group has declined to comment for this story. However, Ruth Simmons, who owns property in the East Mountains, used the Web site to urge members to comment.

"Why should we cede the entire conversation to the tea partyers, especially when we are given a chance to put in our opinion?" she asked. "I would want to make the point that poll(s) show that people do want health care reform … a good segment of (the) opposition is from people like me who don't think the proposed plan goes far enough."