Published: Oct. 9, 2010
Updated: 4:12 p.m.

Tea Party rally draws crowds, candidates

By DEEPA BHARATH
THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER
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GARDEN GROVE – At least 200 people gathered in the Village Green Park under the clock tower on the city's Historic Main Street for a Tea Party Rally around noon Saturday.

Anti-taxation and anti-spending and anti-healthcare reform posters dotted the green as did American flags of all shapes and sizes.

One banner read: "Don't dump the debt on me. Respect the Constitution."
Other posters were more direct. One read, "Fidel Castro Loves Obama" and another said "Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi – Shut up!"

"We're going to take our country back," was a common theme in speeches delivered at the rally.

The main rally organizers, Phil Yarbrough and Dan Shippey said this event's goal was to energize the voters of Orange County for the November mid-term election.

Garden Grove resident Melli Herrera said she came to the rally because she is tired of paying too much taxes and the government spending money it doesn't have.
"The economy will right itself, we don't need to fix it," said Herrera, a Realtor. "It's not going to help if you keep pouring money into it. Let the people ride it out. We've done it before."
Almost all the candidates who spoke were members of the Republican Party. Among the speakers were Assemblyman Van Tran, who is running against Rep. Loretta Sanchez in what is expected to be a heated race, Rep. Ed Royce, Scott Baugh, chairman of the Orange County Republican Party and Rep. Dana Rohrabacher, who also brought out his guitar and sang a song he composed titled "God Bless America, God Bless Our Freedom."
Janet Taylor of Anaheim said she came to a Tea Party rally for the first time because she is worried about the "tax situation."
"I would like to see Obamacare repealed and see our tax monies spent in our own communities," she said. "I believe in what the Tea Party stands for. The Tea Party movement is not about race, religion or party affiliation. It speaks to issues that affect all Americans."
Bob Downing, who helped found the 405/605 Tea Party Patriots Group about a year ago, said he joined the movement for the sake of his children and grandchildren.
"They'll have a massive debt to pay for," he said. "The current administration is turning the country into something we don't want to leave to future generations. That's why we all need to get involved."
Gregory Helm, a lone dissenter in the rally, said he cannot agree with the Tea Party movement because a majority of them support going to war.
"We continue to spend trillions of dollars on unnecessary wars abroad," he said. "How can you support these wars and say you're anti-spending? It seems hypocritical to me."
But Tea Party supporters such as Herrera say that the wars were necessary to safeguard the nation against terrorist attacks.
"What we did in Iraq and Afghanistan worked because we haven't had another 9/11 and the terror attacks have been minimal," she said. "I feel comfortable spending money on national security because it is for our own protection."
Irvine resident Victoria Quick, who is part of the South Orange County 9-12 Tea Party Patriots, said she gets emotional at these rallies.
"Our goal is to replace, redo and restore," she said. "It's time to get rid of socialists and communists. They have no place in America."

Contact the writer: 714-796-7909 or dbharath@ocregister.com

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