Posted on 10/01/2003 9:38:17 PM PDT by archy
New Hampshire wins 'free state' vote
Thousands of libertarians to move to state, work for more liberty
Posted: October 1, 2003
5:00 p.m. Eastern
© 2003 WorldNetDaily.com
A group of 4,500 libertarians who all agreed to move to one state to work toward restoring certain personal liberties and limited government has voted to choose the state of New Hampshire as a new home.
The Free State Project, which has been collecting commitments from members to move to the winning state for two years, announced the results of its balloting this morning. Ten states were under consideration, with New Hampshire prevailing over Montana, Wyoming, Delaware, Vermont, Maine, Idaho, North Dakota, South Dakota and Alaska.
Leaders of the Free State Project now hope to recruit another 15,500 people to migrate to New Hampshire, hoping to "reinforce and enhance the 'sphere of individual liberty' in the Live Free or Die state," said a statement by the group. It is the participants' goal to "preserve one bastion of freedom in the age of intrusive government."
As WorldNetDaily reported, Jan Helfield, a Falls Creek, Va.-based attorney and Libertarian Party activist, is one of the group's leaders.
"The Free State Project proposes to identify the easiest state in the union to free, and then relocate 20,000 people to implement the liberation," he wrote last year. "The people interested in moving will sign up with FSP and vote on the state selected to be freed."
The 20,000 newly relocated activists "would permit Libertarians to register large numbers of new voters to vote Libertarian, a factor that could easily make the difference and lead to a Libertarian victory," Helfield said.
"We could end state redistribution of wealth, repealing state taxes and wasteful government programs. We could privatize education and utilities. We could repeal laws regulating guns, drugs and other victimless crimes. We could abolish asset forfeiture, abuses of eminent domain, inefficient regulations and state monopolies."
The group's statement said organizers expect the first wave of movers to migrate to New Hampshire by year's end.
The runner-up state was Wyoming.
"New Hampshire is clearly the consensus choice of Free Staters," commented FSP president and Yale political science professor Jason Sorens on the group's website. "New Hampshire won a plurality of first-preference votes from every region of the country except the West."
"It's not difficult to see the reasons for New Hampshire's victory," said FSP Vice President Elizabeth McKinstry, who is originally from New England. "The state boasts the lowest state and local tax burden in the continental U.S., the leanest state government in the country in terms of government spending and employment, a citizen legislature, a healthy job market, and perhaps most important, local support for our movement."
According to the group, New Hampshire Gov. Craig Benson pledged to support the aims of the FSP, and several members of the legislature have signed up as members.
The group says if current recruitment trends continue, organizers expect to reach 20,000 commitments by 2006, after which point members would have five years in which to move to New Hampshire.
Noted Tim Condon, FSP director of member services, "The member survey shows that 53 percent of members plan to move within three years, not waiting for the 20,000-member benchmark. Early movers should help recruitment by building a record of success."
Not all in New Hampshire were thrilled with the prospect of thousands of libertarians moving in.
"I like to be left alone by the government. But I need my trash picked up. I need police protection," Dennis Pizzimenti, a lawyer in Concord, told the Associated Press.
The news service reported Kathy Sullivan, state Democratic Party chairwoman, said project members "can best be described as anarchists."
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'Free State Project' seeks to restore liberty
First off, you're crazy if you think Democrats are attracted to small government. Second of all, this is not a Libertarian Party effort.
Too many trolls (living under da Bridge) in Michigan to make it feasible for the FSP... And, besides, we fought a WAR to get the UP! (Okay, it was only agaisnt Ohio, and there was only one casualty in a tavern brawl, but it was a WAR!)
Too many trolls (living under da Bridge) in Michigan to make it feasible for the FSP... And, besides, we fought a WAR to get the UP! (Okay, it was only agaisnt Ohio, and there was only one casualty in a tavern brawl, but it was a WAR!)
Not only that, but she had a couple of rolls of quarters in the bottom of that purse she was swinging at you guys.
Actually, they oppose the move, perhaps because they just want to score points against Benson, or perhaps because see Libertarian Party platforms as appealing to their own core RAT voters.
The Democrats are already in third place in terms of numbers of registered voters in the Granite State. If the porcupines register as Republicans and *Undeclared* voters, the Dems will go further down the hole. If the Porcupines build their own political arm and their numbers continue to increase at the rate they have over the previous 24 months [1000 members the first year; 4500 more the second for a total of more than 5500 now] for the 5-year period that it takes for them to complete the move after the next 15K are added [projected at 103 weeks; for a 7-year total period] the porcupines could outnumber the *undeclared*/independents by the 2008 election...and possibly, the Republicans, though that is not a planned goal of the project. But it could work out that way. And the Democrats could even lose their state funding as a *dominant* political party. No wonder they're in panic mode.
But for a start, we'll see what can be done with just 20,000 Porcupines. And, of course, a quarter-million NH *undeclared*:
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%
-archy-/
Well, that would be the view of the Democratic party hacks who see their political futures withering on the vine. And many have never worked at any other trade. See the post above.
-archy-/-
I'll be bringing my father, I wonder how many spouses, sons, daughters, wives, husbands, etc will be coming along with FSP members?
["spouses, sons, daughters, wives, husbands"
Ministry of Redundancy Department of Repatition calling...]
Well, my kid is 19 and old enough to make up his own mind what he wants to do: work in NH, involve himself with the just-off-the-ground Western FSP, or stay where he is now.
I've got a near-fiancee lady friend with a preteen daughter who loves NH and is twisting my arm severely to head there NOW; my inclination is to visit a couple of times, get the Winter out of the way, and migrate at liesure...but probably before the 2004 election. And that also gives me time to try and convince my kid, or vice-versa.
I've got a couple of professional responsibilities to attend to first, and a pal in the hospital who's likely not going to see the political result of the FSP effort, but was gratified to hang around long enough to see the outcome of the state choice election. He's asked us to take his ashes along with us, but it's not quite reached that point yet.
Of course, there may be a couple of resettling porcupines taking their wives and kids, and someone else's spouses along for the ride. Maybe yoiur redundancy wasn't excessively repetitive after all.
-archy-/-
Too many trolls (living under da Bridge) in Michigan to make it feasible for the FSP... And, besides, we fought a WAR to get the UP! (Okay, it was only agaisnt Ohio, and there was only one casualty in a tavern brawl, but it was a WAR!)
Not only that, but she had a couple of rolls of quarters in the bottom of that purse she was swinging at you guys.
Perhaps, but we in Michigan won. :-) Michigan got da UP, and Ohio got Toledo.
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