Libertarians target N.H.

THE WASHINGTON TIMES

A group that hopes to turn New Hampshire into a libertarian haven will gather this weekend in Lancaster, N.H., for an “activist boot camp.”

The Free State Project is trying to get 20,000 “liberty-oriented people” to move to New Hampshire as “a strategy for reducing the role of government.”

This weekend’s “Porcupine Freedom Festival” in Lancaster will work to familiarize potential recruits with New Hampshire, including “job opportunities, and state and local politics,” according to the group’s Web site (www.freestateproject.org).

The event, also known as “Porc Fest,” will feature a seminar on the U.S. Constitution taught by Michael Badnarik, the Libertarian Party’s 2004 presidential candidate, who is currently running for Congress in Texas.

New Hampshire, with a population of 1.3 million, is the ninth-smallest state in population and has no income tax.

Last year’s PorcFest was “the largest libertarian gathering in the world, with roughly 500 attendees,” according to the group, which says it expects “freedom festival” attendees from all over the United States, as well as from England and Russia.