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Free State Project hits crucial 5,000 member mark
http://freestateproject.org

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.


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Miscellaneous; News/Current Events; US: Alaska; US: Delaware; US: Idaho; US: Maine; US: Montana; US: Vermont; US: Wyoming
KEYWORDS: freestateproject; fsp; porcupines
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1 posted on 08/15/2003 7:53:21 PM PDT by Dada Orwell
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To: Dada Orwell
Wow! I sure hope they actually attempt this. What an endless source of comic relief!
2 posted on 08/15/2003 7:55:14 PM PDT by Petronski (I'm not always cranky.)
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To: Dada Orwell
VT: too gay (& muddy in spring)
NH: a possibility
ME: another possibility, though weather gets rough
MT: already solid conservative Republican. Why?
ND: yaheydere. Brrrr. No.
SD: same as above plus loopy residents like Dashole.
WY: same as MT.
ID: same as above.
AK: serious Northern Exposure & møøse.
DE: flat boring, but has George Thoroughgood & the coast.

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.

3 posted on 08/15/2003 8:33:14 PM PDT by Xthe17th (FREE THE STATES. Repeal the 17th amendment!)
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To: Xthe17th
Maine is fast becoming the socialist/communist capitol from hell
Business/workers leaving at an alarming rate...
Welfare idiots from NY, NJ, MA, RI and plenty of other states moving in...
Not a place one wants to move to at this point in history...
4 posted on 08/15/2003 8:47:46 PM PDT by spartan68
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To: Xthe17th
I would take Deleware. Nice place to live and it would drive Joe Biden nuts, he would have start copying Ayn Rand speeches and start delivering them. That would be worth the moving expenses.
5 posted on 08/15/2003 9:24:03 PM PDT by Patrick1
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To: spartan68
I believe Maine is already being taken over by Somalis who breed faster than even the lustiest FreeStaters.
6 posted on 08/15/2003 9:53:08 PM PDT by Malesherbes
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To: Patrick1
I'd be very surprised if they swayed DE. Because of the low property taxes (but graduated income taxes), it attracts lots of low-income people from PA and NJ (especially Philly). The area north of the C&D is becoming seriously leftist (they call the area south of the C&D canal "Slower Delaware"--and yes, it's a highly derogatory term--city mouse vs. country mouse).
7 posted on 08/15/2003 10:04:58 PM PDT by Windcatcher
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To: Xthe17th
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.

8 posted on 08/15/2003 10:20:50 PM PDT by GOPcapitalist
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To: Dada Orwell
They will need more than 20,000

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.

9 posted on 08/16/2003 1:09:04 AM PDT by rmmcdaniell
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To: GOPcapitalist
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.

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

10 posted on 08/16/2003 1:18:56 AM PDT by rmmcdaniell
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To: archy
ping
11 posted on 08/16/2003 5:57:36 PM PDT by jmc813 (Check out the FR Big Brother 4 thread! http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/chat/943368/posts)
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To: rmmcdaniell
Official Totals for Wyoming: Gore 60,481 Bush 147,947.

20,000 is 1/10 of the total voters in the state.

12 posted on 08/17/2003 12:50:20 PM PDT by Jack Black
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To: rmmcdaniell
The Free State Project's goal is NOT to create a 'conservative' bastion - you must misunderstand what liberty and freedom really mean if you equate these to conservatism. The only issues that conservatives might agree with are free market economics and deregulation, possibly 2nd Amendment rights also... Conservatives tend to abhor the possibility of actual civil freedoms like : no drug laws, legalized prostitution, gay-anything, and so on... I do not expect a whole lot of conservatives wanting to go anywhere near the Free State. The same can be said of Democrats: in their wildest nightmares could just the thought of abolishing public schools, welfare, Affirmative Action, and the host of other 'do-good' government programs they support. The thought of giving people their money back and letting charities and private organizations take care of the so-called 'poor' or indigent gives them the creeps - because then they don't have control of the funds to direct it to their pet programs...

BTW: The 20,000 are not exactly your 'normal' people - the idea is that these are activists who would discuss/debate... get publicity for... and show the reason and logic of libertarian ideas - by doing so they are expected to multiply the 'voting' libertarians...

13 posted on 08/17/2003 4:01:44 PM PDT by Leopard
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To: Xthe17th
already solid conservative Republican. Why?

The FSP is not about winning a state for Republicans, it is about winning a state for libertarians.

14 posted on 08/17/2003 4:03:30 PM PDT by xm177e2 (Stalinists, Maoists, Ba'athists, Pacifists: Why are they always on the same side?)
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To: AAABEST; A.J.Armitage; archy; Beck_isright; claidheamh mor; Cathryn Crawford; EBUCK; Esjay; ...
Porcupine list ping!

-archy-/-

15 posted on 08/18/2003 12:01:12 PM PDT by archy (Keep in mind that the milk of human kindness comes from a beast that is both cannibal and a vampire.)
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To: Jack Black
Official Totals for Wyoming: Gore 60,481 Bush 147,947.

20,000 is 1/10 of the total voters in the state.

See also the following article regarding Wyoming redistricting.

Census Bureau Delivers Wyoming's Census 2000 Population Totals for Legislative Redistricting; First Race and Hispanic Data

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).


16 posted on 08/18/2003 12:06:38 PM PDT by archy (Keep in mind that the milk of human kindness comes from a beast that is both cannibal and a vampire.)
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To: Dada Orwell; Kevin Curry

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."

17 posted on 08/18/2003 12:07:10 PM PDT by Cultural Jihad
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To: rmmcdaniell
20,000 Won't even be enough to cancel out the radical greens' vote in VT and ME.

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-/-

18 posted on 08/18/2003 12:14:01 PM PDT by archy (Keep in mind that the milk of human kindness comes from a beast that is both cannibal and a vampire.)
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To: rmmcdaniell
There is another thing to consider, low population states are generally low population for a reason: not too many jobs.

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.

19 posted on 08/18/2003 12:21:10 PM PDT by EBUCK (FIRE!....rounds downrange! http://www.azfire.org)
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To: archy
Thanks for the ping! Congrats!
20 posted on 08/18/2003 12:22:31 PM PDT by EBUCK (FIRE!....rounds downrange! http://www.azfire.org)
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