- On October 1, 2003 I gave a talk at a press conference in New York city announcing the Free State Project’s choice of New Hampshire. I said at the outset that “New Hampshire is the luckiest state in the history of the United States to be chosen by the Free State Project.” Now, almost nine years later, that statement has been borne out.
As a very close observer—not to mention participant—in New Hampshire state politics, I can say without reservation that the effect of the Free State Project migration on our state has been positive. Crucially so in the context of state-level politics. First of all, the state Republican Party would not have been graced by the incredibly positive leadership of Speaker of the House Bill O’Brien and the responsible Republicans around him without the backing of supporters who came out of the Free State Project (it was a very close Speaker’s election, remember).
Secondly, the huge contributions of incoming supporters of the Free State Project have been recognized by the indigenous freedom fighters in the NH political realm. The doughty Republican supporters of low taxes, restrained government spending, cutting unnecessary regulations, right-to-work, and many other important liberty-and-freedom initiatives had to fight a rear-guard action for years against surging Democrat gains. They also had to fight RINO traitors (“Republicans In Name Only) who voted with the Democrats more often than they supported Republican principles (one member of the State House said to me he had been told by a fellow House member “I’m really a Democrat but I always run as a Republican because I couldn’t get elected in this [Republican] district otherwise”).
Well, the Democrats finally got their majority in 2006, and from then to 2010 they controlled the state legislature, the governor’s office, and even the state supreme court (reference the infamous judicial power-grabs known as the “Claremont decisions”). The results? Historically huge budget deficits, accounting gimmicks to hide fiscal irresponsibility, a billion dollar structural deficit looming into the future, and 100 raised taxes and fees. By the time the 2010 elections came around, New Hampshire was reeling from the overspending, and talk was in the air about forcing a statewide income tax or a statewide sales tax on us to “fix the budget problem.”
Enter the Free State Project reinforcements, immigrants who threw themselves into local, county, and state-level politics, fighting back against the always-bigger-government mindset. Result? Today we have a balanced budget, we’ve passed multiple fiscal reforms, we have a responsible budget process based upon realistic revenue projections, and multiple other reforms have been passed, from voter ID to prevent vote fraud, to jury nullification to prevent miscarriages of justice, to public employee pension reforms addressing the structural deficit, to strengthening the Second Amendment right to self-defense, and much else. Responsible Republicans have replaced the Destructive Democrats. Many RINO’s have been cleared out of the NH Republican Party, replaced by real Republicans who support the state Party Platform and vote accordingly. New Hampshire now has the lowest unemployment rate of any New England state, growing job opportunities, and an improving state economy coupled with reduced government power and intrusion into people’s lives.
Could it all have been done without those who came to New Hampshire because of the Free State Project? No way. So let’s all celebrate the Free State Project and the migration it has sparked! Because of it, New Hampshire’s old freedom-fighters are now in the state leadership, not a beleaguered minority, and with a responsible Republican majority, the future looks even brighter! So…onward for New Hampshire!
Or, to use the old communist slogan that Obama and the Democrats use…”Forward!”