Why is New Hampshire so purple

[XemaSab]

when the rest of New England is so blue?

[Raven]

1. Free Staters, Evangelical Finns and curmudgeons. n/t

[Warpy]

2. New Hampshire was the tax free Mecca for tax whiners,

most of them from the Boston area. They traded a long commute for a state with few taxes--and few services. Some of them started touristy businesses there.

That's why it's so purple. It's Tax Whiner Heaven.

[aaaaaa5a]

7. Good point. nt

[XemaSab]

8. Interesting

[coldwaterintheface]

12. Property Taxes are very high

I used to pay town tax, county tax, state income and property taxes now in Tax Free NH I only pay property tax but it exceeds what I used to pay in total.

In my case I moved here for the privacy and winter and it is why I like living here, people mind their own business for the most part and leave you alone. You post a no trespassing sign and people don’t trespass on your property.

FYI live in NH work in MA you also have to pay 5% tax to MA.

[Warpy]

14. I know a lot of people who found that out about the property tax

NH is beautiful, I'll give it that. I also love winter, which is why I picked NM over the rest of the desert southwest when I was ready to leave New England.

However, explaining the purple can be done by explaining the tax whiners who started to move there in the early 60s.

That so many of them screwed themselves on property taxes only gives me a little schadenfreude. Not much, just a little.

[bluestate10]

15. Many of those fools moved back across the border.

New Hampshire has an aggressive property tax system. Once the property taxes are paid and travel expenses paid were totaled, the idiots came out behind. So they live in northern Mass cities and take advantage of NH's no sales tax.

[coldwaterintheface]

21. Homes are way more expensive in MA then NH

At a minimun I would have to pay and extra $350k for the same size home, not counting the land. I am on 5 acres of woods with 2 streams within 60 miles of metro Boston in NH. During non rush hour I can get from my house to downtown Boston in about 1:30.

Same size house and lot in Metro Boston would be well into the millions.

It takes me 1 hour and 20 minutes each way to get to work, including dropping off the wife at work, I work with people who live within 10 miles of work and it takes them 45 minutes each way.

Still better then where I used to live were I was 22 miles from work and it took 1 hour and 45 minutes each way.

[JI7]

3. they are more libertarian

[Spitfire of ATJ]

4. Hunting is big there so the "Democrats are coming for your guns" line plays well.

[XemaSab]

9. But why there and not Maine or Vermont?

[Spitfire of ATJ]

13. In Maine it's easy,...you don't shoot lobsters....

[bluestate10]

16. Vermont picks up a lot of New Yorkers.

Have you listened closely to Bernie Sanders? Vermont also gets a lot of people from western Massachusetts, that is one of the most liberal parts of Massachusetts, Liz Warren is polling over 60% in that region of Massachusetts.

[Berlum]

5. It's a Granite State of Mind

The Granite Staters are well aware that within hours of George AWOL Bush strutting the deck of an aircraft carrier to delcare "Mission Accomplised" the state landmark -- the noble Old Man of the Mountain -- crumbled to dust.

The Old Man literally lost fact when Bush told that Whopper and kept sending our sons and daughters off to die in a foreign land so 1% Republican Oil Barons could get richer and richer and richer, and keep getting special tax breaks.

[aaaaaa5a]

6. New Hampshire is basically a suburb of Boston.

Over the years it became populated with white folks who disliked busing/integration/etc. Its essentially a giant "white flight" state. As a result it has a tendency to be a bit more conservative than its neighbors. If Massachusetts could extend its borders north about 40 miles, it would encompass the majority of New Hampshire's state's population as a suburb of Boston. (which in reality it is.) Then the state would be solid blue because the dis-enfrachised angry whites would get swallowed up by the rest of the population, and nobody would ever know about them. And Barack Obama would carry the state of "enlarged Massachusetts" 55%-45% instead of the 60% to 40% traditional Massachusetts Democratic margin. (I hope that made sense.)

Basically, NH is a haven for a small minority of white voters who dislike everything Boston and Massachusetts has represented over the last generation. And because this group now lives in a separate, parsley populated state, their status is elevated.

[bluestate10]

19. New Hampshire has changed.

The state was blood red once, a haven for republicans. New Hampshire is purple now and mostly blue because newer arrivals have neutralized the old hands. Plus the conservative oldies are dying off.

[-..__...]

10. Fewer taxes, and those seeking refuge from the Nanny State...

most notably the one on NH's Southern border.

[rox63]

11. It used to be bright red

So purple is an improvement.

[Jennicut]

17. Most people there are more libertarian then the rest of us in New England.

I wouldn't say it is very socially conservative but they have no sales or income tax. Property taxes are quite high there. They want "government off their backs."
I do love NH for it's beauty. The White Mountains are beautiful and there is so much to do there. I go to Lincoln, NH almost every summer since my father in law lives near there. But he is a right leaning libertarian of course. And he thinks Connecticut has too much "damned traffic and people." He used to live in CT but moved years ago.

[ThatsMyBarack]

18. Why is Indiana red right now?

We had IN in 2008...

[Odin2005]

20. I think a lot of rich Liberturdians moved there in the 60s