Libertarians promote New Hampshire as a ‘free state’

CONCORD, N.H. — A group of Libertarians announced a project Wednesday to get 20,000 Americans to move to New Hampshire and work to transform it into a "free state" with fewer laws, smaller government and greater liberty.

New Hampshire, whose motto is "Live Free or Die," beat out nine other finalists for the Free State Project. Wyoming was a runner-up in balloting conducted by about 5,000 members of the project around the country, national Libertarian Party Vice President Elizabeth McKinstry said.

The 5,000 members have already pledged to move to the selected state, Free State Project organizers said. They hope to increase their numbers to 20,000 within two years and start transforming the state into a national model of liberty.

Some free-staters want to roll back restrictions on gambling, legalize medicinal marijuana and strengthen gun rights. But McKinstry said members also will work for charities and scholarship programs and help citizens get more involved in government.

"We won. That’s fantastic," New Hampshire Libertarian Party Chairman John Babiarz said of New Hampshire’s selection.

McKinstry of Ann Arbor, Mich., said New Hampshire won because it "boasts the lowest state and local tax burden in the continental U.S., the leanest state government in the country, a citizen legislature, a healthy job market, and perhaps most important, local support for our movement."

Project members also like the New Hampshire constitution, which is seen as protecting the right to revolution. It reads: "Whenever the ends of government are perverted, and public liberty manifestly endangered, and all other means of redress are ineffectual, the people may, and of right ought to reform the old, or establish a new government."

The prospective new neighbors worry some of New Hampshire’s 1.2 million residents.

"I like to be left alone by the government. But I need my trash picked up. I need police protection," said Dennis Pizzimenti, a lawyer in Concord.

Doug Hillman, 39, said he is looking forward to leaving Graham, Ala., and moving his wife and four children somewhere near Littleton or Lancaster.

Hillman was most impressed with Republican Gov. Craig Benson’s attitude toward the project. "Come on up, we’d love to have you," he said.

Following second-place Wyoming in the voting, in order, were Montana, Idaho, Alaska, Maine, Vermont, Delaware, South Dakota and North Dakota.