I’m not bashing NH. NH and Maine are the most conservative of all the New England states. But Boston is more liberal than anywhere. And there was significant movement from MA to NH even before FSP.
South Dakota has roughly the same population as NH. People are not commuting from Sioux Falls to Minneapolis. (But they do drive a long way for things like dinner). Alaska would’a been a good choice for FSP. Most of the Rocky states. Wyoming? Idaho? Maine might’ve even been better than NH.
I’m not saying FSP is a bad thing. They didn’t effect Ron Paul positively in NH much though.
If it were up to me I’d go with Idaho. ID’s population is more in one place then SD or Wyoming. SD is spread out all over the place and it would take six hours to drive from Souix Falls or Rapid City to the state capital. I don’t know much about WY. But I still think NH was the best choice since its small, easy to get around and has a historic libertarian atmosphere. SD and WY don’t have income tax but have sales tax. I think smaller size is better too.
Dr. Paul did much better in New Hampshire then in most other states during the primaries. The Free State Movement was still getting started. Two years later they are more active and have done more for NH. I posted a list of videos showing this.