To mark the one year anniversary, the Albany Tea Party held an America Rising event. Our Solomon Syed joined us with more on the event.

ALBANY, N.Y. -- "Socialism isn't a bad word," says Daniel Smith, co-founder of the Homefront Patriots group. "There are actually people in the president's administration who admire European governments and social democracies."

Shouts, signs and strong opinions are the hallmark of most Tea party rallies. But music? With local band the Ameros setting the tone, tea party activists stayed true to their name on Saturday.

"Yeah, it's a party," says Kevin McCashion, Sons of Liberty founder. "Anything that adds energy, that gets them agitated, that adds excitement so they can get out and do things."

But amid the festive atmosphere, some political theater played out. Registered Nurse Debbie Busch officially announced her candidacy against nine-time incumbent Democrat Assemblyman John McEneny at the rally. That begs the question, is the tea party movement now a proving ground for political candidates?

"Listen to the people. Listen to us. Do your job. Represent us. We want you to represent us and if you don't, we'll vote you out in 2010," said Albany Tea Party organizer Valerie Doane.

Former President Bill Clinton said Friday the anger among some in the Tea Party movement is similar to what caused the deadly Oklahoma City bombing in 1995. But tea partiers today said the only threat they pose...

"Is to the politicians. They're threatened by us," said Doane.

"Complaining and 90 cents gets you a pack of gum. If you don't take action, then nothing ever changes," said Guilderland resident Mark Grimm. "So the question is, are we really going to make a difference this year?"

Assemblyman Jack McEneny agrees the hard part will be keeping the tea party movement going strong through the November elections. But he also says that tea partiers are expressing some real fears and frustrations that many Americans feel toward their government right now.