Are new hampshire and Maine libertarian?

[Dan the Roman]

Actually the above posters are right that suburban whites fleeing Massachusetts helped push the state to the Right in the 80's and 90's. While the orther Northern New England States like Vermont and Maine were left relatively unchanged and have since moved much farther to the left then New Hampshire if anything New Hampshire moved in the opposite direction, towards the GOP. The continued trends among Native New Hampshire residents, migrants from other states, and Canada have since 2000 moved the State to the left.

Neither are libertarian. Maine is a socially Liberal, economically moderate to populist state. New Hampshire is a fiscally conservative(but decreasingly so) socially moderate state. If the GOP in Northern New England could somehow seperate itself from the National GOP they could indeed restore some modicum of success in Maine, New Hampshire, and even in Vermont.

The Republican Party in Maine seems pretty strong. They have 2 Republican senators (albeit very moderate ones).

That is all they basically have.  Governor is a Democrat, both members of Congress are Democrats, both the state Senate (20-15) and State House (95-55-1) are controlled by the Dems as well.

True but it is generally beleived that if the Republicans were to recover in New England it would have to start in Maine since it has become relatively stable at least while Republicans are still in a downward spiral in New Hampshire.

Though they are still losing ground there, dropped 2 seats in the state Senate and 4 in the State House last year, with the Dems also gaining an Independent seat, (though the GOP did gain one seat back in a Special election).  Granted the state GOP might not be in the utter free fall they are in NH, they are in pretty poor shape in Maine as well.

To be fair they had Obama at the top of the ticket winning nearly 60% of the vote, and both State Senate seats were ones in which Obama was probably at 63-64% at a minimum. The GOP has done well to maintain competitive and was within a thousand votes of taking control of the state senate in 2002, 2004, and 2006.

The State House is another story, and there incompetence at the center, bad choices in the primaries, and a trend away from the type of abrasive conservatism that used to work all contribute to a bad situation.

[Dan the Roman]

"Leftists" moving to New Hampshire are heavily outnumbered by Republicans, twat.

No proof of this claim has been demonstrated. Presumably anecdotal claims from a New Hampshire Democrat are not particularly convincing. Talk to New Hampshire Republicans or conservative/libertarian independents (and I have) and they'll say just the opposite, that its the "Massholes" that are ruining their state.

Of course there are Republicans and independents among the migrants, but there is no reason to believe that they "heavily outnumber" Democrats.

The Boston Globe Magazine article I posted was neither the first nor the only source to at least partially attribute NH's leftward trend to migration from other states. To simply claim it is "wrong" is wrong.

Living in a state doesn't automatically give you special insights as to its politics, especially as your own perceptions are skewed by your family, friends, and acquaintances, who more often than not tend to be like you.

Please look at the county map from the 2008 election: McCain did best in the Southern part of the state, which has the most Massachusetts migrants and where many people in fact commute to work in Massachusetts. Up north, Obama won by much wider margins, and these areas, largely as a result of being economically depressed, have experienced little migration from Massachusetts, or anywhere else for that matter.

Not quite accurate. A large part of the migration is Massachusetts residents retiring to their second homes, which are generally not in the Southern part of the state, but in the Lakes Region. If you look at the areas that have swung the most, it is in Belknap, Carroll, Merrimack, and Grafton. What these hold in common is that almost no one works in real positions, but in the tourism/temporary resident industry, especially in the former two. The type of affluent Massacushetts residents who have flooded in here are very socially liberal.

In addition, most are economically "liberal" as well. Most support the income tax not because they like taxes, but because most of their income is made in Massachusetts, they would not have to pay it, whereas they do have to pay local property taxes. So most favor getting rid of the property taxes in favor of the state income one. They are the bank-rollers and backers of the left-wing of the Democratic party in the state. This incentive structure by the way also applies to commuters in the south.