Libertarians Moving to N.H. to Establish 'Free State'

Fox News ^ | Wednesday, October 01, 2003 | associated Press

[archy]

CONCORD, N.H.

[archy]

PorcuPing! Fox News/AP report on the FSP state choice election

[MrLeRoy]

Kathy Sullivan, state Democratic Party chairwoman, said project members "can best be described as anarchists."

That's also what some FReepers say. Hmmmmm ....

[archy]

Kathy Sullivan, state Democratic Party chairwoman, said project members "can best be described as anarchists."

That's also what some FReepers say. Hmmmmm ....

Coincidence or conspiricy? You decide. Of course, I'm sure she's very sincere and really believes that. And isn't afraid for her job as a party hack if her Democrats fall into third place in new voter registrations.

Still, she reminds me of someone not usually thought of in the political arena....

[Atlas Sneezed]

I was rooting for Wyoming.

[mvpel]

My wife and I just put in an offer on a house in Merrimack, NH. :-D

[hoosierham]

Wayne Green moved his radio magazine to New Hampshire in the 60s due to less taxes and regulators and has since published MANY computer mags,etc. He has been a long-time booster of the area.

[AmericaUnited]

Property taxes are not that cheap. Plus if you make more than $50,000 or $100,000 depending on the business type, you pay a state income tax on your business. It's not 100% heaven.

[AzSteven]

It would seem like 20,000 people would be able to impact the political leadership of a state with 400,000 people much more easily than a state with 1.2 million people.

Perhaps some concern (misplaced) that Wyoming does not offer the modern lifestyle? Is this group a limited government libertarian group, or an 'I want free drugs' libertarian group?

[John Will]

Is N.H. a liberal or consertive state?

[Believe_In_The_Singularity]

New Hampshire is (historically) a conservative state, and considered very conservative when compared to its neightbor to the south. One problem with NH is that there are many from MA moving to NH to excape the blatant socialism of MA. And they are bringing their conservativism "a la carte" with them.

NH pays no income taxes but there are very high property taxes to make up for it. The worst case scenario is living in NH (pay high prop tax) and working in MA (still have to pay MA income taxes of 5.95%.)

There are 3 major routes to and from NH: I93, I95, and Rt3. Rt3 in MA is undergoing a major expansion from 2 lanes to 3 lanes. This is because so many people have moved to the Nashua and Rt3 areas but still work in MA on the tchnology belt of Rt128.

So, in my opinion, this was a great choice by the Libertarians, but it will not be easy since there is such an in flux of "moderates" from Massachusetts.

BITS

[Final Authority]

NH is fiscally conservative, has very strong family values, believes in personal responsibility, and has a traditional work and education ethic. However, to traditional Republican conservatives we are seen at times, liberal. This is because the majority, although we do not desire abortions, also do not want the government to be involved. Interesting fact about NH is that auto insurance is not mandatory but the percentage of uninsured is lower than in neighboring states where it isn't. Same with seatbelt usage. BTW, the seacoast towns have both the most liberal and conservative voters. Portsmouth and Durham liberal and the rest of the towns quite conservative. Rockingham county is becoming the most conservative even with Salem, not on the seacoast, voting liberal oftentimes.

[archy]

Is N.H. a liberal or consertive state?

It's sort of a unique situation, with the Democrats in third place behind the Republicans and Undeclared voters. But if I've figured the numbers right, the Democrats are about to find themselves in 4th place.

NH State voter registration, September ’02 2001 [after list purge]

REPUBLICANS 245,791/ 37.3%
UNDECLARED 242,028/ 36.8%
DEMOCRATS 170,405/ 25.9%

[Willie Green]

The 5,000 members have already pledged to move to the selected state, Free State Project organizers said.

Yeah, 5K may have signed the pledge, but I bet they forgot they did it within 10 minutes. Their short-term memories are fried crisper than bacon!

[archy]

It would seem like 20,000 people would be able to impact the political leadership of a state with 400,000 people much more easily than a state with 1.2 million people.

Maybe, and for sure, the gains would have been achieved more quickly in a state where the Porcupine numbers would have carried more weight. But in any event, it may not matter a great deal.

Perhaps some concern (misplaced) that Wyoming does not offer the modern lifestyle? Is this group a limited government libertarian group, or an 'I want free drugs' libertarian group?

There were serious questions raised about the rural/rustic mature of much of Wyoming, which I'll have to adnmit have at least a certain seasonal validity: there are homes in the county where my granddad settled with doors on the second story as a means of dealing with snowdrifts.

As for the character of individual Porcupines, that varies with the individual as much as in any other assortment of individuals. But the close results with Wyoming coming in second place should be indicative, as is the establishment of the now inprocess FreeMontana Project in parallel with the FSP efforts in NH.

My guess? This is going to snowball sufficiently to very quickly affect both locales, and probably others as well. Check the math at the link.

-archy-/-

[archy]

Yeah, 5K may have signed the pledge, but I bet they forgot they did it within 10 minutes. Their short-term memories are fried crisper than bacon!

Pledge? Was I dusting the furnature, man? Or have those fraternity kids been playing with the marking pens, signing their pledges again.

This is AWESOME stuff you sold me dude!

-archy-/-

[archy]

My wife and I just put in an offer on a house in Merrimack, NH. :-D

Well, GREAT! Congratulations!

See you in the Free State, FRiend!

-archy-/-

[archy]

I was rooting for Wyoming.

Me too, not too surprisingly, since I'm the founder and moderator of the FSPWyoming discussion group. But I don't think the possibilities of FSP expansion into alternate states is necessarily contraindicated if the numbers keep pouring in.

And with 150 Porcupines already resident in NH, it'll be real interesting to see how long it takes until that figure doubles.

-archy-/-

[Willie Green]

Any of the medicinal marijuana crowd who actually manage to migrate to NH will rapidly flee the state as soon as they figure out that the winters aren't quite as pleasant as the summers.

[RJCogburn]

Decent fishing here, Willie.....