Politics

Free Staters Win 'At Least' 15 Seats in NH State House; Libertarian Leaners Win Many More

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Free State Project

Yesterday, I wrote that many libertarian-leaning candidates seemed well on their way to seats in New Hampshire's legislature. Well, it looks like a good number of them arrived safely. According to Ian Freeman at Free Keene, at least 15 explicit Free Staters—a record number—will be ushered in as lawmakers in the 424-seat body. Many more candidates from both major parties endorsed by the libertarian-friendly New Hampshire Liberty Alliance will also take seats.

Writes Freeman:

According to a handy list compiled by "Free State Project Watch", a project by pro-state group "Granite State Progress", at least 15 people they alleged to be Free State Project participants have won the 2014 general election!!!

This is huge news. The previous counts of Free Staters in the state house were 12 in 2010, 11 in 2012, and now at least 15! It's impressive that so many have won elected office already and the official move for the Free State Project has yet to even happen. (The FSP move doesn't officially start until we reach 20,000 participants and we're currently over 16,000.)

It's interesting that Freeman relies on a list compiled by opponents of the Free State Project, but it's true that busybodies can be annoyingly well-organized—and people are often more strongly driven to number their enemies than count their friends.

Freeman adds, "the majority of New Hampshire Liberty Alliance-endorsed candidates won tonight as well!  (NHLA-endorsed candidates vote for liberty more often than not – they aren't necessarily principled libertarians.)"

About the latter group, Dick Desrosiers, Chairman of the Hampton Democratic Committee, complained last month that they dominate the New Hampshire legislature and "introduce and pass legislation to remove any and all government impacts on liberty and property rights and diminished the importance of protecting and promoting the common good."

What better endorsement could you ask?