It’s time for some encouraging news. Though there have been plenty of trials, and a whole lot of unknowns about our move and the future, I can say with some degree of confidence now that we’re in the right place at the right time. Nobody knows what kind of result the Free State Project will have, but it’s now obvious there is already progress being made.
Friday night, the Republican Liberty Caucus formed a NH chapter. For starters, that would not have happened (or at least not now) without the Free State Project choosing NH. But the bigger news is not just that we rounded up enough people to fill the required positions and, hence, could charter a chapter, but that there were actually about 35 people at the charter meeting! I don’t know if that’s a record, but I bet it is. I do know it was roughly double the attendance at the RLC’s *national* convention this year.
But that’s not all. It wasn’t just any 35 people that happened to show up. There were close to 10 currently elected, just elected, or formerly elected state reps there. Two of those are the new co-chairs of the organization (one of whom is also President of Gun Owners of New Hampshire). The secretary is a Porcupine who announced at the meeting that *he* is running for state rep in 2006. And almost 1/2 of the crowd were recently-moved Porcupines.
This demonstrates two important things. First, there is real, measurable progress occurring because of the Free State Project. Second, that project is not disconnected with the existing structure and culture in New Hampshire.
At the meeting, we all were able to stand up and introduce ourselves. As you might expect with any libertarian leaning group, a few people had ‘something’ to say. Most impressive to me was the comments of one of the co-chairs who just lost his state rep election by 42 votes. He was very disappointed about his loss and decided to have a recount. When a dozen or so Porcupines showed up to help with the recount, his attitude about the whole thing changed. He expressed his graciousness for the help and said that he knew then that it didn’t matter so much what the outcome of the recount was because help is on the way. One of our major assignments for the next two years is to get teams of people around the very libertarian state reps who have just lost their seats, and make sure they go back into the legislature in 2006.
But that’s not all. Yes, I keep saying that, and I hope I’ll be saying “but that’s not all” a lot in the coming years. I organized a meet and greet at our house yesterday for us and another Porcupine who moved here to Keene since we got here (amazing, eh?). At the RLC meeting, we invited everyone in attendance to show up! This did concern me a bit because I had already received a stunning number of RSVP’s and I wasn’t sure where we’d put everyone. Several of the people at the RLC meeting did ask for directions and said they’d make it.
Indeed, we had a full house. I didn’t get an exact count but we know there were more than 40 people who came. At least three of them were from *out of state* and many from the other side of the state (two hours away). And, not all of the people from the RLC meeting who thought they might make it actually showed up. I assure you, I’ve never had so many liberty lovers in any of my houses before. It definitely had the ‘we’re home’ feeling.
This project is real, it’s happening, and if you’re not here, you’re missing it.
By the way, just so you can be encouraged to ‘bump up’ your move plans, I had this realization. It’s already a little overwhelming moving into the state and trying to get to know the literally hundreds of libertarian activists already here. Can you imagine being number 20,000 to show up here?
Don’t be late.
V-