Posted on 08/15/2003 7:53:21 PM PDT by Dada Orwell
This just went up on the FSP website.
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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT: Elizabeth McKinstry, Vice President Free State Project, Inc. Phone: (734) 904-5712 Email: emckinstry@freestateproject.org Website: www.freestateproject.org
Free State Project hits crucial 5,000 member mark
August 13, 2003
Celebrity writer Boston T. Party becomes 5000th "Free Stater" Group aims to migrate, free one state from "Big Gov." 5000th sign-up considered key milestone Event triggers crucial vote: Which state will become the Free State? One year ahead of schedule, America's fastest-growing liberty movement has just crossed a rubicon. This week Colorado author and privacy activist Boston T. Party became the 5,000th person to join the Free State Project, an organization working to concentrate 20,000 liberty-minded voters in one state. Their aim is to help reduce the size and scope of government there, making it a beachhead for individual liberty: The "Free State."
"It is my pleasure to formally join," says Party, author of "Boston's Gun Bible" and "You and the Police."
"Start packing your bags...We're all gonna be neighbors!"
Boston isn't the first public figure to become involved. Other notables in the movement include New Hampshire Governor Craig Benson (R) and syndicated columnist Vin Suprynowicz. But Boston's decision to join triggers both crucial events and warm responses.
"Boston T. Party was a favorite author of mine long before the Free State Project, " says FSP Vice Pres. Elizabeth McKinstry, "and it's thrilling to see the synergy between Boston and the FSP blossom in this way."
Having reached the 5,000 mark, the Project is now required by charter to select a state. Over the next month, members will vote by mail to choose between ten candidates: VT, NH, ME, MT, ND, SD, WY, ID, AK and DE. The winner will likely become their eventual home, though members are officially pledged to move only if their numbers reach 20,000.
Individuals wishing to participate in the state vote have until August 15 to join the FSP. Ballots are due Sept. 22, and (drumroll) the winning state will be announced on October 1, 2003.
In the meantime, Party says he's nearing completion on a novel he started in 1997: "Molon Labe!" The topic? Thousands of liberty lovers try to establish a Free State! Excerpts are now available on the FSP website, www.freestateproject.org.
I think it will come down to New Hampshire, Maine & Deleware and which of those three can only 20,000 people make a difference. Maine has 2 RINO senators, Delaware has 2 'Rat senators where they could have an effect. Would the strategy be for them to evenly disperse or to take over a particular town? What if these people leave swing states causing them to then swing over to 'Rat? The logic escapes me.
Good questions. For the first, they should try to concentrate in a particular area. Maybe not the same town, but perhaps the same county or the same state legislator district so they can at least get somebody elected. For the second, most of the people who sign up for this thing are libertarians and libertarian anarchists who seldom if ever vote Republican to begin with. So we won't be losing any votes by their departure. By contrast, if they do settle in a marginally 'rat state they may provide the electorate with a sizable enough minority to swing what would have otherwise been a two-way contest. In short, I don't think it will hurt anything and it does stand a good chance of picking up a couple of smaller offices with right wing conservative and libertarian candidates if they consolidate - small town mayors, city councils, state legislators, county commissioners and the sort.
DE:
Albert Gore Jr. 180,068 54.96%
George W. Bush 137,288 41.90%
Ralph Nader 8,307 2.54%
VT:
Albert Gore Jr. 149,022 50.63%
George W. Bush 119,775 40.70%
Ralph Nader 20,374 6.92%
ME:
Albert Gore Jr. 319,951 49.09%
George W. Bush 286,616 43.97%
Ralph Nader 37,127 5.70%
20,000 Won't even be enough to cancel out the radical greens' vote in VT and ME.
There is another thing to consider, low population states are generally low population for a reason: not too many jobs.
How many of these free staters would actually move when the time came? They would have to give up careers, friends, and location-dependant hobbies. I think many would reconsider when faced with making all these sacrifices all for the sake of some lower offices. To actually turn a state into a conservative bastion and make it worth their effort they'll need a hell of alot more than 20,000. See post #9
20,000 is 1/10 of the total voters in the state.
The FSP is not about winning a state for Republicans, it is about winning a state for libertarians.
-archy-/-
20,000 is 1/10 of the total voters in the state.
See also the following article regarding Wyoming redistricting.
The U.S. Census Bureau today delivered to Gov. Jim Geringer and the majority and minority leaders of the state legislature the official Census 2000 Redistricting Data Summary File for Wyoming that, under Public Law 94-171, could be used to redraw federal, state and local legislative districts.
The census data allow state officials to realign congressional and state legislative districts in their states, taking into account population shifts since the last census (in 1990) and assuring equal representation for their constituents in compliance with the "one-person, one-vote" principle of the 1965 Voting Rights Act. These data also are the first population counts for small areas and the first race and Hispanic-origin data from Census 2000.
The redistricting file consists of four detailed tables: the first shows the population for each of 63 single and multiple race categories; the second shows the total Hispanic or Latino population and the population not of Hispanic or Latino origin cross-tabulated by the 63 race categories. These tabulations are repeated in the third and fourth tables for the population 18 years and over. The data are for the resident population of the United States. (To access the detailed data, go to http://factfinder.census.gov).
Psychologists will have a field day explaining their penchant of imposing their toleration of evil upon each other. "I'm personally not involved in ____(fill in an evil here)____, but will be glad to move next door to you in order to impose my toleration and non-judgmentalism upon you."
Concur. That's one reason why Wyoming and Montana are thought of as more likely choices among the first 5000 signed-on Porcupines in the West, and why New Hampshire is generally the most preferred location of those on the Eastern Seaboard.
I think, however, that the first 20K will be but the tip of the wedge. Once others find out that they're not alone and that there is hope for them and their political beliefs elsewhere, I expect a good many leaving the failed pismire ant-people warrens in California and elsewhere will give it a go, signed on as pledged FSP members or not. We shall see, and fairly soon.
Back when we had less than a thousand pledged FSPers, I was considered to be overly optimistic by suggesting that the vote for *which state* would take place before this Halloween. My bet is that it'll take us about as long to garner the next 15 K as it did to get the first 5000. After that, deponent guesseth not.
-archy-/-
You don't understand who these people are. They are Job Creators, Innovators, Entrepreneurs, Hard Workers and aparently well off enough to pick up and move confidently. Whichever state is chosen it will be very fortunate to recieve some of the best, brightest and most determined this country has to offer.
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