By By JONATHAN CLAYBORNE
Staff Writer
Around 35 conservative activists and spectators gathered near or under a tent for a rain-drenched rally Wednesday evening in Washington.
The rally, sponsored by Americans for Prosperity-North Carolina of Raleigh, kicked off with Dallas Woodhouse, state director of AFP, throwing toy footballs and decrying “out-of-control spending” in Raleigh and Washington, D.C.
Among the attendees was Justin Keith of Belhaven.
“If you believe in it, you’ve got an obligation to support it,” Keith said when asked what brought him out in the pouring rain.
Keith said he believes in smaller, more conservative government — in any weather.
“Rain or shine, the government goes on,” he added.
He said he’s familiar with the work of Americans for Prosperity, a national group that advocates for Republican-friendly causes, in part through affiliated, state-level organizations like AFP-N.C.
“I haven’t heard anything I don’t support, but that’s not to say I support everything they say,” Keith remarked.
In a short speech, Woodhouse sounded familiar GOP themes, and he pointed to a nearby tour bus, its body festooned with the signatures of tea-party types from all over the nation.
“The overspending, in general, has been our very biggest problem,” Woodhouse said.
He criticized the Democratically controlled N.C. General Assembly for declining to cut income taxes and other taxes, and he asserted the state’s legislative body won’t let a $1 billion tax increase expire.
“We know that what we’re doing in the North Carolina Legislature is not working,” Woodhouse said.
Other speakers also held forth for a time, getting an enthusiastic response from the crowd, which seemed indifferent to the nasty meteorological conditions.