Meet the Candidates - Manchester's Free Staters and other Friends of Liberty

That's the title of a rant written by Emily Sandblade, co-winner of the Manchester primary yesterday for Ward 11 alderman.  She's a Free State Project immigrant from Washington State. 

Here's a picture of her burning a Federal Reserve Note - I guess she wants to privatize the Treasury.  She's taking campaign contributions in gold or chickens.

I assume everyone here knows what the Free State Project is.  At this point, they have about a thousand people in the state, and over 10,000 people signed up to move to New Hampshire when they hit the 20,000 mark, which, at current rates, will be in about ten years. 

We have some running for office in Manchester.  They're a curious bunch. It's great fun - at least, until they get elected.  We have a lot of trouble getting good candidates for city office.  If these folks aren't outed, and their opponent is weak, they're likely to win. 

We also have the normal cohort of more-or-less home-grown libertarians, Tea Party activists, and conservative curmudgeons running for office in November.

I thought you might want to meet some of these folks. This is about half of them.

Roy Shoults is running for School Board in Manchester's Ward 4.  He's a Free-Stater, too, though he came here before the project got started.  Unlike Emily, he likes to hide his libertarian light under a bushel, claiming to have "exactly the same goals" as the departing Democratic incumbent, Chris Herbert.  Here's what he says at the top of his campaign website home page, at right:

If you get the impression Chris Herbert endorsed him, you would be very, very wrong.  I have no idea about Ted Gatsas - presumably the endorsement is correct, but maybe not. 

• I WILL PUT  CHILDREN'S EDUCATION FIRST AND FOREMOST!!
• I WILL PUT YOUR TAX DOLLARS TO THEIR MOST COST-EFFECTIVE USE
• I WILL DISCUSS PROBLEMS & SUGGESTIONS WITH PUPILS, PARENTS, TEACHERS, AND SCHOOL AUTHORITIES!!

They've stopped paying the bills at the Ladies of Liberty Alliance website, but full-size versions of these photos were on it until the landlord locked the door.  These were left in Google's cache.

This lovely lady of the right, who I put on the left just to annoy her, is Tara Powell, candidate for school board in Manchester's Ward 5. 

As far as I know, she's not a member of the Free State Project - but I had to put her in here anyway. 

I need a beer. 

Last June, a handful of Free Staters were busted for scribbling all over the front of the Manchester police station with chalk, then incessantly razzing the cops who came out to respond.  After watching their video of the "action", I have a lot more respect for the Manchester cops - they showed a lot more restraint than I'd be able to.  If you've been downtown recently, you've almost certainly seen their work - they've been exercising their First Amendment right to scrawl in more places than a dog in a fire-hydrant factory.  One of them was Mike Segal, candidate for alderman in Ward 5. 

This quest for 15 minutes of fame has been going on for a while - he was arrested in Keene back in January for a similar stunt.

This Ovide Lamontagne supporter, seen here flipping off Paul Hodes' image on TV, is Manchester's Michelle B wannabee, Lisa Gravel, running for alderman in Manchester Ward 7.  She believes government should be as small as possible.  She, uh... works as a USPS letter carrier.  Go figure.  If she gets her wish, she'll have lots of time to work for her constituents.