Over the past year, the multitude of Tea Party and 9-12 groups that have sprung up across the country have radiated populist energy in noisy, crowded demonstrations from the Washington Mall to parks and town squares across the country.

Now, in Pennsylvania and elsewhere, many of these activists are wrestling with the questions of whether and how best to channel that energy from the realm of protest to more conventional electoral politics.

Standing outside a meeting room at St. John's Lutheran Church of Highland in McCandless Friday night, Judith S. Brown smoked a cigarette in the 10-degree chill. Its smoke mixed with the vapor from her breath as she shivered on the fringe of a parking lot dotted with bumper stickers with messages such as: "End the Fed," and "It's Not Left vs.Right; It's the State vs. You."

Inside, a crowd of about 100 people were there for a meeting of a Pittsburgh 9-12 group, part of a movement nurtured by the Fox News Channel commentator Glenn Beck and named for the perception of unity in the country on the day after the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

Overlapping the concerns and often the membership of the Tea Party movement, they embrace a similar message of low taxation and vigilance against what they contend is a pattern of unconstitutional overreach by the federal government.

Ms. Brown's activism embraces a variety of causes. She's a member of the Second Amendment Sisters, dedicated to gun rights. On Friday, she had just finished a presentation on the nuts and bolts of running for local elections.

Her talk was part of the Precinct Project, one more new initiative whose goal, she explained, is to have representatives of Tea Party, 9-12 and similar groups elected or appointed as precinct committee members -- the foot soldiers of traditional party politics.

Tea Party adherents cite the election of Scott Brown in Massachusetts as evidence of their ability to leverage their grassroots organizing into results at the ballot box. But many of the organizers and enthusiasts of the loosely-knit movement remain wary of traditional party structures.

Their concerns clearly have a greater overlap with the current Republican Party than with the Democratic administration whose stimulus policies have drawn their wrath, but many resist being identified as an agent of any party.

How these and similar groups resolve such questions will help determine whether these newly vibrant grassroots groups will have an enduring impact on American politics at every level or whether their influence will fade with the eventual passing of the economic crisis that catalyzed them.

Melissa Haluszczak helped organize a Tea Party protest April 15 in her hometown of Coraopolis. She attended subsequent rallies through the summer and fall and helped maintain a website for like-minded advocates of a smaller government and lower spending.

"What do we do next?" she said she asked herself. "We can continue to have rallies, but what's next?"

Her answer was a run for Congress as one of several Republicans hoping to oust Rep. Mike Doyle, D-Forest Hills. But, she said, "I have a small 'r' after my name; I don't have a big 'R.' I think both parties have failed their people in many ways."

Standing at the back of Friday's 9-12 meeting was another congressional candidate with roots in the region's Tea Party movement, Clayton Grabb, one of the multiple would-be challengers to Rep. Kathy Dahlkemper, D-Erie.

Last week, he wrote in a message to supporters, that, " 'If I had a dream'... it would be for an entirely new Congress made up of entirely new people... Republican, Democrat or Independent representatives. They would be 'who they are' first before their party."

Southwestern Pennsylvania is a microcosm of the country in having spawned an array of new grassroots conservatives groups over the past year. Supporters say they have often overlapping memberships with varying degrees of cooperation and coordination.

The largest operate under the common Tea Party banner, groups that emerged after Rick Santelli, a CNBC commentator, offered a self-described rant early last year protesting the Obama administration stimulus and mortgage bailout policies.

Patti Weaver was a key organizer of the Pittsburgh Tea Party movement, a group that grew from a cascade of Twitter conversations in the wake of the Santelli outburst. Since then, it has been involved in rallies that have drawn thousands to events at sites including Market Square Downtown, Flagstaff Hill in Oakland and North Boundary Park in Cranberry.

"The stimulus plan rewarded irresponsible behavior," said Mrs.Weaver, a Harvard MBA from Fox Chapel who manages her husband's medical office. "When Obama pushed that through, he awakened a sleeping giant."

In the digital arms race of American politics, Democrats seemed to have the upper hand after the 2008 election with the Obama campaign's exploitation of Internet fundraising and organizing. But Facebook, Twitter, Meetup sites and other social media networks are central to the viral organizing at the heart of this movement.

Other similar local groups include the Southwest Pennsylvania Tea Party Coalition which helped attract thousands to a rally at the Bushy Run battlefield Sept, 12, the same day that hundreds of thousands of like-minded activists were gathering for a rally in Washington D.C.

"The energy and concern has got a lot of people off the couch and now you've got people talking about politics instead of sports around the water cooler," Mr. Sayre said.

Mr. Sayre and other activists stressed that while they have common concerns there is no single precise definition of a Tea Party entity. Some are adamantly resistant to party politics. Others increasingly encourage their supporters to dive into traditional, usually Republican, party organizations.

"The organization is very local; each group runs differently," said McKay Sailer, a key organizer of the Pittsburgh 9/12 group.

"One thing you will find with 9/12 groups and Tea Party as well is that we have a lot of libertarians and Democrats as well ... ultimately the central thread is smaller government and free markets, that kind of broad idea attracts a lot of people."

Mrs. Sailer said her group was encouraging members to get active in grassroots positions, such as precinct committee member, in both parties. She plans to run for a GOP state committee seat in the May primary, one of several 9/12 or Tea Party candidates who will appear on local ballots this year. So does Judith Brown, who conducted the political tutorial that opened the Friday meeting.

Mrs. Sailer is also part of an ad hoc coalition of like-minded conservatives with Tea Party and 9-12 connections who have banded together to vet candidates in the coming primary election. They have already met with congressional candidates including Keith Rothfus, and Bob Klein, Republican contenders for Rep. Jason Altmire's seat in the 4th Congressional District.

She said they had also scheduled a meeting with Mary Beth Buchanan, the former U.S. attorney who appears to be on the brink of announcing her bid for the seat's GOP nomination as well.

That formation of that vetting group is an example of the spontaneity and lack of hierarchy that has helped the growth of these grass roots entities. To many supporters, those qualities reflect the movement's strength. Ned Ryun, the president of American Majority, an organization that trains conservative activists and candidates in the logistics of local politics, argues, however, that that amorphous model could pose of longer term hazards.

"We're looking at a highly decentralized movement. There's lots of energy, but unless it becomes more cohesive, it could fade away," said Mr. Ryun, a conservative activist and former speech writer for President George W. Bush.

"The Republican Party has tried to co-opt them or embrace them. A lot of the Tea Party People are keeping them at arms length ... My advice to people is to organize locally and network nationally."

In Pennsylvania, there is no central roster or coordinating structure for the various Tea Party groups.

Mrs. Weaver, of the Pittsburgh Tea Party, was in Washington last weekend for a meeting of the Tea Party Patriots, a national umbrella group for many, though by no means all of the local Tea Parties. She said the group plans to form a political action committee as to exert its influence more widely.

Prominent among the group's targeted races is former Rep. Pat Toomey's bid to oust Sen. Arlen Specter.

"We saw what we did with the Scott Brown elections and we will be looking very strategically at all the elections around the country," she said.

Across the state, the Independence Hall Tea Party Coalition, a collection of Tea Party groups in the Philadelphia region, also plans to form a political action committee. Organizer Don Adams said they hoped to use it to influence congressional races throughout the Delaware Valley.

Bob Howard, a retired PPG executive and a former president of the North Allegheny School Board, said he had been active in local politics for decades.

"I've seen grass-roots activity, but never of this magnitude," he said as Friday's 9-12 meeting broke up. "One influence it will have is that you'll see some of these people moving into the [party] committees.

"A lot of them don't have full complements now. In the longer term it has the potential to provide new blood to the political parties."

Washington correspondent Daniel Malloy writes the "Pittsburgh On The Potomac" blog exclusively at PG+, a members-only web site of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Our introduction to PG+ gives you all the details.