How the Bay State transformed its northern neighbor.
Veni, vidi, voti. I came, I saw, I voted. That's how -- 267 years after it broke away from our embrace -- Massachusetts ended up reconquering New Hampshire. The elections are long over, the winners are comfortably ensconced in their new offices, and it's now undeniably clear: The onetime anti-tax, anti-government, reddest-of-the-red states has now turned thoroughly Bay State blue. It's a victory that was a long time coming.
For decades, William Loeb, owner of the Manchester Union Leader, cracked the conservative whip, demanding that anyone with the temerity to run for office sign on to an ironclad no-taxes pledge. Democrats were scarce creatures. During the entire 20th century, Republicans held both US Senate seats 82 percent of the time.
The state's First Congressional District was Republican for 78 out of 100 years; the Second District was Republican for all but six of those years. Governors hailed from the GOP 80 percent of the time. The Legislature was comfortably Republican; indeed, one would have to go back to 1874 to find a time when both houses were controlled by Democrats. And, of course, the state was mostly Republican when it came to presidential races. In the 25 elections held in the 20th century, its voters chose the GOP nominee 18 times.
These red-solid results reflected the state's political ethos. The state motto, "Live Free or Die," was less a demand for liberty than it was an insistence that government get out of the way. And get out of the way it did. Even in 2004, according to the US Census Bureau, per-capita state and local spending in New Hampshire was a miserly $5,811 -- 35th of all the states. Massachusetts, by contrast, ranked fourth, at $7,561. Moreover, New Hampshire is one of only six states with a truly part-time legislature, paying state representatives $200 annually and senators an even more paltry $100. And why not? The hard-bitten residents of the land of the Old Man of the Mountain didn't need government. They were fine all by themselves, thank you.
How things have changed. Today, the governor is a Democrat. Both congressional representatives are Democrats. Republican John Sununu lost his Senate seat to Democrat Jeanne Shaheen in November. Both houses of the Legislature are now solidly Democratic, and more than half the state voted for Barack Obama. Indeed, the only Republican politician of any note is three-term US senator Judd Gregg, who right now must be feeling awfully lonely.
There's a reason for all of this: New Hampshire now is Massachusetts. Loeb must be rolling in his grave.
For years, the folks in the Granite State would chortle about how alluring their brand of low-tax living must be to Massachusetts residents. In fact, it seems, it was. From 2000 to 2006, even as Massachusetts's population remained stagnant, New Hampshire grew by 6.4 percent, according to a 2008 report from UNH's Carsey Institute. Most of that population increase was due to migration from other states, and the number one contributor was metropolitan Boston. During that time, New Hampshire had a net gain of 44,000 from this region.
And why the rush to move north? A Globe poll from 2006 found that most who left Massachusetts did so because of our high cost of living. Another 30 percent cited taxes and a good chunk -- more than 10 percent -- named the state's liberal politics and political leadership.
How deliciously ironic. All of those emigres may have thought they had abandoned Massachusetts, but it appears many carried its politics with them. On the streets of Nashua and Manchester, they're now building their own little Bay States. Why are they re-creating the very thing they left behind?
My guess is that while it's easy to complain about state government in general, when it comes to specifics, people like having the government take care of them. Onetime Massachusetts residents are still in thrall to the lures of well-funded schools, decent roads, and readily available healthcare. That's what they were promised by the Democrats in Massachusetts, and that's why they're now voting Democratic in New Hampshire. Is all of this a good thing or bad? Well, we've seen this story before: A Democratic hegemony. The slow death of the Republican Party. How much longer until New Hampshire's own version of the Big Dig?
Originally published in The Boston Globe Magazine, February 15, 2009.