The decline of the NH Advantage?

Judging by this month's election results, I say New Hampshire is doomed. The state legislature went Blue as in Democratic and in a very big way. Sure there's the libertarian, small government streak. But far too many Massachusetts residents are moving there and signs point to the fact that sooner than later they will erode the Yankee individualism that has long made NH the Orange County of the Northeast. And yes those property taxes.

The state went for Kerry in 2004 and threw out its two Republican congressmen -- in favor of left-wing Democrats. Happy days are here again for the levellers, the pro-taxers. I say NH gets a broadbased tax within those two years to pay for all those services that Massachusetts exiles are pining for. Here's the Union Leader with an opposing view:

How much of the Republican debacle at the New Hampshire polls this month was due to the national mood and how much was due to more local factors remains debatable. But the oft-repeated line that we are turning Democratic because of the influx of people from Massachusetts is just bunk.

We have long thought that some of the strongest believers in small government and low taxes and spending were the people who have fled to New Hampshire from the Bay State because they want to lead their own lives without Big Governmen's "help."

A University of New Hampshire Survey Center study this month seems to confirm this.

"People moving here from Massachusetts are the only reason that New Hampshire is staying as Republican as it is" says Andy Smith, head of the survey center.

Traditional Republican voters, the survey said, include the very kind of small-business owners and working-class people who have fled Massachusetts and settled mainly right across the border in Salem, Windham and other towns.

In fact, all 13 state representatives elected from Salem and Windham this month were Republican, quite a contrast to the results elsewhere, which have resulted in the first Democrat-controlled House in modern times.

The bad news, of course, is that if Republican office holders and party leaders don't practice as well as preach the small-government, low-tax philosophy that has made New Hampshire what it is, they will lose the votes of even the most stalwart of the party faithful.

The good news is that with the big-spending Democrats in Massachusetts having just elected a governor to go with their one-party Legislature, we can expect more and more refugees in the years ahead.

Bunk? The estimable Union Leader is living is a state of denial. I'll give the Union Leader less than two years to prove me wrong.