Free State Project cheers one of its own in Winters
The going has been slow for the Free State Project.
The five-year-old Internet-based political movement had hoped by 2006 to have 20,000 libertarian-leaning people committed to moving to New Hampshire to begin the work of making the state a repository of libertarian ideals. So far, just 200 have answered the call.
But one who did has delivered the project's most significant boost to date. This month, Joel Winters , a transplant to Manchester, N.H., by way of Tallahassee, became the first member of the movement to win a state-level office with his election to the state Legislature.
"I'm going to be on the floor and holding the Legislature accountable to the New Hampshire traditions of honest and open government, and limited and local government," said Winters, 29, who works as a carpenter.
The win is tempered by the vastness of New Hampshire's Legislature, with 400 House members. Winters ran as a Democrat, not a Libertarian, and freely acknowledges that he was helped by the Democratic tidal wave that shut Republicans out of major offices and turned the Legislature over to Democratic control.
Still, Free Staters are crowing, saying that the win confers legitimacy on the movement.
"It's a great achievement by one of our members," said spokeswoman Amanda Phillips. "It shows that the Free State Project can actually work in New Hampshire."
Moreover, some said, the win underscores that while Free Staters disdain the size and shape of government, some are willing to work from within to seek change.
"Many Free Staters are paranoid. They don't want to get involved and prefer to work through nonviolent, nonpolitical activities," said Calvin Pratt , a Free Stater who lives in Goffstown. "But as soon as Joel is sworn in, we will have a voice in the Legislature."
The Free State Project chose New Hampshire as its laboratory in 2003, believing that the state's flinty individualism would jibe with its efforts to reduce the size of government, eliminate taxes, privatize schools, and minimize privacy intrusions. Former governor Craig Benson welcomed the group, and would-be revolutionaries have been trickling into the southern tier, though at a slower rate than hoped. Winters was among the first Free Staters to move to New Hampshire, arriving in Manchester in March 2004. A native of Chicago suburbs, Winters hopped around the country after high school, working in fast-food franchises and construction.
He embraced libertarianism in his late teens and early 20s after reading Ayn Rand and the science fiction writer Robert Heinlein , from whom, he said, he learned the value of individual responsibility. Among Winters's principal political concerns is individual privacy. He does not carry a cell-phone, and he prefers not to use credit cards or ATM machines because, he said, they create a map of a person's movements.
"I am not willing to have my life turned into a bunch of 0's and 1's," he said.
A key plank of his campaign was opposition to the federal Real ID Act, which mandates that states impose stricter identification requirements for driver's licenses, a move that some say could lead to institution of a national ID card. Winter says he decided to run when the Republican-controlled state Senate last year rejected legislation that would have exempted the state from some of the law's requirements.
He raised $5,000 for yard signs and post cards, he said, and went door to door in the largely blue-collar district on the west side of Manchester, where other Democrats also found success this election season.
Michael Arrington , 24, a college student who voted for Winters, said he liked Winters's friendliness and work ethic. Told of Winters's connection to the Free State Project, Arrington, a Republican who voted Democrat this cycle, said he was doubly pleased with his choice.
"He's a Democrat but he sounds like he supports the Republican issues that hold up with the state's values," he said.
Democrats say they are pleased to have Winters in their fold, which next session will count 271 members in the House. They note, though, that he has promised to toe the party line.
"Joel is a unique Democrat," said Mike Brunelle , a newly elected House member and vice chairman of the Manchester Democrats. "But he is a Democrat."
Winters, for his part, rejects labels. "Neither party has a monopoly on good ideas," he said, adding that he is not a board member of the Free State Project.
"This is where I have moved to and where I have put down roots," said Winters, who married a New Hampshire native and recently became a father. "I am going to grow old here, and I just want to take care of New Hamsphire."
