Who is the tea party? Where is it going?

You may have met Ralph Sprovier before.

He is the one in the grocery story check out line who dropped an unsolicited remark or two about President Barack Obama's health care plan.

At the department store, he started in on the federal debt with a stranger.

"If I see a spark there in someone's eyes, I give them my card," says the retired commodities trader and insurance salesman from Woodridge.

And the card reads, "Illinois Tea Party," next to an image of a steely bald eagle.

While energized by popular conservative pundits and harnessed by an out-of-power Republican Party, the tea party in Illinois comes down to the grass-roots work of hundreds of activists like Sprovier who want to see a more conservative America.

As the loose-knit coalition of tea party groups officially turns 1, organizers in Illinois are facing the inevitable do-or-die challenge: turning their anger and ideals into political action that moves elections.

Leaders in the movement across the suburbs know this. And it is likely to be the focus of speeches today at Tax Day rallies planned across the nation, state and suburbs from St. Charles, Naperville and Palatine to downtown Chicago and downstate Carbondale.

"You can't just rally all day," says John O'Hara, author of "A New American Tea Party" and a vice president with the conservative Illinois Policy Institute. "You need to move beyond the rally rhetoric to tangible results."

For now, Illinois tea party organizers are not moving toward creating an official political party in which candidates would run under a Tea Party label. Nor are they talking about rolling out a detailed policy platform that goes beyond the current broader statement of principals - supporting liberty, free markets and limited government - that currently ties supporters together.

The tea party, it seems, is set to remain a collaboration of various groups under different banners, whether it be the Northern Illinois Patriots or the Freedom Tea Party of Naperville.

But they have big plans.

The solid core, those who attend monthly meetings or chime in on regular conference calls, appear to number in the hundreds in the West and Northwest suburbs. The broader base of supporters is clearly in the thousands, and more likely tens of thousands, if e-mail lists and rally turnout are a reliable measure.

They organize over the Internet, exchange talking points on policy with support from conservative think tanks and find their frustration and beliefs reinforced at all hours by vocal Republicans and popular conservative talk show hosts.

With this support, they now are working to build a political apparatus they hope can swing elections as they carefully select candidates to support in crucial races. They want to canvass neighborhoods like precinct captains, hold major debates, organize meet-and-greets and release candidate score cards.

"The next stage of the Illinois tea party is to have electoral victories and public policy victories," says Hinsdale businessman Adam Andrzejewski, who ran for governor in the GOP primary and who will be speaking at several rallies today.

Ultimately tea party activists hope to create a lasting base that can repeatedly propel like-minded candidates into spots on local school boards, library districts, the General Assembly and higher, a long-lasting conservative revolution.

There has already been some success.

Tea party groups in the suburbs pulled off Republican debates for governor, Congress and other posts in the recent primaries, raising their local profile and giving them credibility with politicians. They lay claim to propelling at least two candidates through the Republican Congressional primaries and likely played a role in the victory of governor candidate Bill Brady, a Bloomington lawmaker.

To build on that, however, will take real staying power. Some longtime Republican politicians have little faith that the tea party has what it takes for long-term success.

"They didn't surface that much in the primary," former Republican Gov. Jim Edgar said recently. "I'm not one to say they are taking over the Republican Party."

In a speech at Elmhurst College last week, Edgar called for aggressive state budget cuts, but also a tax increase at the state level to help cover a $13 billion shortfall. Edgar also spoke in favor of immigration reform.

If it was a tea party rally, he probably would have been booed off the stage. Asked then about today's rallies, Edgar chuckled, "I doubt if I go."

If Edgar is not a big fan of tea parties, neither are many tea party activists a big fan of him.

But the four-term statewide GOP official knows Illinois politics. He believes a Republican viewed as staunchly conservative can't win high office in this Democratic-leaning state. Plus, Edgar says the strict anti-tax rhetoric of the tea partyers doesn't fit reality.

"I'm just saying as someone who has been the governor of Illinois and has a pretty good record on holding the line on spending and cutting things out," Edgar says, "you can only go so far with that."

Tea party activists say they have long been disillusioned with the Illinois Republican Party.

"When it comes down to it there is not an iota of differences between these guys when it comes to voting for the kinds of programs that continue to enslave us financially," says Steve Stevlic, an organizer for Tea Party Patriots Chicago who is setting up today's main rally downtown.

In fact, many are even concerned some tea party groups are fronts for the GOP, or at least too cozy with it.

"It is a real concern," said Tony Raymond, an organizer for Northern Illinois Patriots and an insurance industry consultant from Lake Villa.

Still, tea party activists say their best chance at moving the energy of today's rallies into the Nov. 2 general election will come by supporting many - but not all - Republicans.

Tim Kraulidis, an organizer for the Illinois Tax Day Tea Party and a Joliet industrial sales representative, says he hopes the groups could build enough strength to move the vote by as much as 5 percent, which could be the difference between victory and defeat.

"We will do it for the right people," Kraulidis says. "We would look at it as our civic duty."

Sprovier sees it as the natural evolution of his efforts to convert tea party members everywhere he goes, every day.

"We are getting a little bit more honed in now," Sprovier says, "and a little bit more polished."

Thursday's ralliesTea party groups are planning local rallies, including:Chicagobull; Noon to 1:30 p.m., Daley Plaza, 50 W. WashingtonPalatine bull; 3 to 6:30 p.m., Volunteer Plaza, Route 14 and Hicks RoadGenevabull; 4:30 to 7 p.m., county government center, 719 S. Batavia Ave.bull; 11 a.m. to 2 p.m., Route 64 and Fifth St. Napervillebull; Noon to 2 p.m., city hall, 400 S. Eagle St.Algonquinbull; Noon to 1 p.m., Cornish Park, 101 S. Harrison St.Crystal Lakebull; 3 to 6 p.m., Crystal Court Shopping Center, 5500 Northwest Hwy.False20001333A tea party protest along Route 62 in Algonquin last Tax Day.Brian Hill | Staff PhotographerFalse