Is the Free State Project, the group of libertarian-minded individuals resettling in the Granite State to live in a place with limited government, the biggest threat to our state?

That’s what state Rep. Cynthia Chase, D-Keene, wrote on a post on the progressive Blue Hampshire blog a couple of weeks ago, comments that during the last few days have created a national firestorm among conservative commentators and news aggregation sites.

Chase stated that there was “legally, nothing we can do to prevent them from moving here” but she added that leaders could “make the environment here so unwelcoming that some will choose not to come, and some may actually leave” adding that one way would be to “restrict the ‘freedoms’ that they think they will find here.”

Chase later wrote that two showed up to a recent peace demonstration and after talking to them and finding out they were thinking about moving to New Hampshire, “The folks on the Square told them in no uncertain terms not to do that because Free Staters are not welcome here.”

The comments have struck many as discriminatory, especially from a professor at a state college who should be open-minded and more tolerant of others and their viewpoints. Some bloggers on the Free Keene site last week noted that Chase has only been a resident of the state for about six or seven years.

On Jan. 2, Granitegrok blogger Steve MacDonald caught onto the comments and then, a day later, so did the Breitbart news aggregation site.

On Friday, radio talk show host Rush Limbaugh spoke about Chase’s comments on the radio, noting MacDonald’s post. Limbaugh, who reportedly has about 20 million listeners, wondered what the reaction would be if a state rep. suggested that women, gays, or other minorities have their freedoms restricted.

So tell us, do you agree with Chase? Are Free State Project members the biggest threat to the state? If not, what is the biggest threat to the state? Leave a note in the comment section.