Hundreds of people showed up at the Santa Fe Plaza on Wednesday to vent anger against taxes and government spending. They cheered remarks by a former Republican governor and a Republican candidate for governor, but booed a Democrat who said taxes are necessary.

The event, billed as the Santa Fe Tea Party, was part of a series of "tea parties" organized around the country on the day when federal income-tax returns were due. They were called "tea parties" in reference to the famous pre-Revolutionary War event in 1773 when American colonists, protesting British taxes, dumped tea from British ships into Boston Harbor.

While the gatherings were billed as bipartisan, grass-roots events, they were heavily promoted by some GOP politicians and featured prominently by the right-leaning Fox News channel. In New Mexico, the state Republican Party promoted "tea parties" in several cities.

Many of the signs displayed at the Santa Fe rally indicated an intense dislike of President Barack Obama: "233 Years to Build a Nation, 3 Months to Destroy It," one placard read. Another showed a photo of a gravestone marked "United States of America, Born July 4, 1776. Died Nov. 8, 2008. Suicide."

In the November presidential election, Obama carried Santa Fe and the state by wide margins.

Other signs were more humorous. "Your Pork Broke My Piggy Bank," one said. Another, referring to lending institutions bailed out by the federal government during the recent mortgage credit meltdown, read "Freddie Mac Can Ki$$ My Fannie Mae."

But nobody in the crowd seemed to find any humor in former state Sen. John Grubesic's speech. Early in his talk, Grubesic, a Democrat who represented a Santa Fe district for a term but didn't seek re-election last year, got some applause when he said the two-party system in the U.S. is "completely dysfunctional" and that both major parties are responsible for the current financial crisis.

But things started turning ugly when Grubesic declared, "I do not enjoy paying taxes, but I recognize that tax dollars are necessary for the functioning of a civilized society."

The scattered boos got louder when he said, "When you compare the level of taxes in the United States with other advanced countries, we are getting off pretty easy."

After Grubesic declared, "I look forward to the expiration of the tax cuts imposed by President Bush — tax cuts are partly responsible for our fiscal disaster," jeers nearly drowned out the rest of his speech.

"You're wrong! You're wrong!" one man shouted, while others yelled, "Go home!" "OK, that's enough!" "Sit down and shut up!"

After the event, several people approached Grubesic. "I don't agree with a lot of what you said, but I admire you for standing up for your beliefs," one man said. One woman apologized for the behavior of the crowd.

Grubesic, who often courted controversy during his four years in the New Mexico Senate, seemed unfazed by the negative reactions. "I'm just happy to be invited to speak anywhere," the lawyer said. "My own party doesn't invite me to speak."

Attendees were much more in tune with former Gov. Gary Johnson, who was elected to two terms as a Republican but, as often was the case when he was in office, did not give a party-line talk Wednesday.

Dressed in a gray T-shirt with a peace symbol, Johnson said, "I'm really disappointed in the Republican Party of the last eight years. We had the presidency and the Congress, and we rang up record deficits."

He also criticized the war in Iraq. He said the U.S. shouldn't have gone to war if it had to resort to massive deficit spending.

While those criticisms didn't win him big applause, the crowd ate it up when Johnson talked about government waste, high taxes and the possibility of runaway inflation.

He criticized as wasteful the state's recently expanded Rail Runner commuter train operation and the state jet purchased by his Democratic successor, Gov. Bill Richardson.

Johnson got a big ovation when he said there should be term limits for officeholders. Ironically, shortly after he said that, one man shouted out, "We want you back, Gary." Johnson served two four-year terms.

New Mexico National Guard Brig. Gen. Greg Zanetti, who is seeking the 2010 Republican gubernatorial nomination, also got a good reception. The crowd cheered when master of ceremonies Josh Gonze pointed out that Zannetti recently returned from a year of serving as deputy commander at the U.S. Naval base at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba.

As far as state taxes go, New Mexico ranks somewhere in the middle in terms of per capita taxes. According to 2005 U.S. Census figures released last year, New Mexico ranked 21st out of the 50 states. The amount of taxes paid per capita for this state was listed as $2,322.78.

As for getting a share of federal spending, New Mexico has fared better than most states. According to a study by The Northeast-Midwest Institute, a private, Washington-based, nonprofit and nonpartisan research organization, New Mexico in 2005 ranked fourth per capita among states in receiving federal dollars. In terms of return on tax dollars, the state ranks second behind Mississippi. New Mexico gets $2 in federal spending for every dollar that state citizens pay in federal taxes.

Contact Steve Terrell at 986-3037 or sterrell@sfnewmexican.com. Read his political blog at roundhouseroundup.com.