Think of it like a boatered but not moderated by a business owner, but
moderated by us. If a moderator gets out of line we can vote him off. The
group would have control, not just one person.

You might have good luck with an approach where your new site would have a
moderator "election" at various intervals.
They might be as frequent as every 120 days.

This would allow a moderator who discovers he or she has bitten off a larger
bite than is easily chewed to opt out, gracefully, after a short period of
time.

The approach would keep small groups of people from leaving the site because
they couldn't stand the moderator (we all know of sites like that), as nobody
would feel "stuck" with a moderator for an indfinite period of time.

A moderator who wanted to continue could stand for reelection, and if the
majority of the group wanted him or her to remain in the post that would settle
the question.

Would it be more difficult to cross post from the political groups to your new
site?
A lot of the political threads in rec.boats start off as mass cross postings to
or from political sites- with the trolling author then checking a long list of
sites to see if he or she got any bites.