Still glowing in the success of the Providence Tea Party, in which somewhere between 2,500 and 3,000 people turned out last Wednesday to protest what they consider high taxes at all levels of government, Colleen Conley, the event’s primary organizer, pledged to keep the movement alive during a telephone interview yesterday.

Conley said she plans to create a non-partisan political action committee that will eventually endorse political candidates who sign anti-tax pledges and show a penchant for transparency. Conley also said she plans on organizing similar rallies in the future in order to harness the energy shown at last week’s event.

Skeptics say the audience at the rally, while large, consisted of frustrated people who wouldn’t get along with one another if a platform was created.

Conley disagrees.

“I think those people are misjudging the sentiment of the hardworking taxpayer. I think we’ve reached a tipping point due to this excessive taxation. The straw that broke the camel’s back has arrived,” said Conley.

The protest was not only heavily attended, but entirely peaceful and litter free. There was hardly a piece of trash thrown onto the State House lawn or steps where the rally was held.

Protesters held signs reading everything from “Help, my government is robbing me,” to “Don’t tread on me.”

Warwick resident Mark Gabrie mocked what he believes is the Treasury Department’s inflationary practices of excessively printing money by holding a sign that said, “Ask me if you need any money. I have plenty.” Gabrie held monopoly style $1 billion bills with President Barack Obama’s picture on them.

The rally featured about 20 speakers, all of whom railed against government spending, predominately on the federal and state levels.

While the rally was long on attendance, it was remarkably short on specifics, instead intended for anyone who “had had enough.”

Bill Felkner, who runs the nonprofit, non-partisan Ocean State Policy Research Organization (OSPRI), served as the event’s co-organizer and chose the 20 speakers. Felkner said he thought it was wise to keep the topic broad in order to drum up attendance to the rally.

“One thing we all had in common was that we all don’t want to see our taxes going up. So whether you listened to the first speaker or the 20th speaker, you were getting that same message,” said Felkner.

Felker said he would likely be stepping aside from the movement because his position at OSPRI prevents him from getting involved in politics and forces him to stick to policy.

The event speakers featured talk show host personalities like Helen Glover, who railed against what she considers the print media’s left-leaning coverage, and John DePetro, who railed against the power that special interest groups have over Rhode Island state and local government. The vast majority of the speakers were average everyday Rhode Islanders without experience in government.

There were two speakers from Warwick. State Representative Joseph Trillo (R-Dist. 24, Warwick) – who is preparing for a gubernatorial bid – made an impromptu speech after signing a “no tax increase pledge.”

Former Warwick School Committee Chairman and City Councilman Robert Cushman (who also writes a guest opinion column for the Beacon on a bi-weekly basis) also spoke at the rally. Cushman told the audience that his fiscally conservative stances galvanized city unions and other special interest groups against him, which cost him a relatively close race in last year’s city council election.

“Like Tip O’Neill said, ‘All politics is local,’” Cushman told the audience.

Cushman beckoned the audience to support fiscally conservative candidates at the lowest levels of government in future elections.

Besides Cushman, almost none of the other speakers mentioned local government, and the audience seemed to be almost entirely focused on President Obama and his allies in Congress.

At one point, when talking about the no tax pledge, Felkner asked a member toward the front of the audience who said he came from Central Falls who his state representative was.

The man had no clue.