It appeared to be spontaneous: about 15 people demonstrating Tuesday in front of the regional office of U.S. Rep. Mike Kelly in Sharon, Pa. On Wednesday, that city’s newspaper, The Herald, reported the protesters “were delivering a cease-and-desist order” to Kelly, a Butler Republican with tea party leanings, as they “staged a rally . . . saying they wanted an end to the partial federal shutdown and looming default.”

The report noted several in the group spoke and said Congress was being held hostage by a small group of hard-core conservative Republicans like Kelly, who oppose the implementation of the Affordable Care Act — Obamacare.

But the rally was not as spontaneous as it appeared. It was organized by the liberal, nonprofit Keystone Progress, which simultaneously conducted similar demonstrations Tuesday at the offices of 13 Republican House members and U.S. Sen. Pat Toomey in Pennsylvania.

An Internet search turned up some revealing facts about Keystone Progress. It’s affiliated with Progress Now, a 10-year-old national group based in Colorado.

Progress Now is a big gun in the liberals’ national war chest. Its creators include: Wes Boyd, founder of MoveOn.org, the pro-liberal political action committee; Rob McKay, chairman of the Democracy Alliance, which channels millions of dollars to liberal causes; and Ted Trimpa, a top Democratic Party strategist.

Tuesday’s demonstrations — which happened not only in Pennsylvania but in states nationwide — served notice that the movers, shakers and moneymakers behind the Democratic Party intend to campaign aggressively on the party’s existing platform, regardless of how the current gridlock played out.

If the government shutdown had led to a default on the national deficit, they would have blamed Republicans for the resulting hardships inflicted on common people; but the shutdown ended Wednesday — with Kelly voting in favor — and the demonstrators will trumpet it as their victory for common people.

The protests also served notice to the tea party faithful that the opposing party’s machinery is prepared and primed for battle.

Progress Now’s representative in Sharon on Tuesday was Missa Eaton. Last year, Eaton, a Democrat from Sharon, ran against Kelly and lost — although she garnered more votes than Kelly in Erie and Mercer counties.

Eaton told the Butler Eagle on Wednesday that for personal reasons she won’t be a candidate for Kelly’s seat in 2014. But she remains active with Keystone Progress and the Democratic Party, which are not one and the same although they have a broad overlap of political interests.

Keystone Progress is working hard, Eaton said, to recruit, organize and mobilize voters and candidates in rural areas of Kelly’s 3rd Congressional District.

No doubt, Rep. Kelly was aware of the potential repercussions of a lingering shutdown, with or without a rally from Progress Now. But it’s the organization’s other activity — organizing and focusing Kelly’s opposition — that should catch his attention.