Arizona Democrats try to strangle the No Labels baby while it's still in the cradle
One of the major motivating forces in America over the past quarter-century has been the rising contempt for the country’s two major political parties – the Republicans and Democrats.
Arizona has reflected this disgust as independent voters have become one-third of the electorate and have surpassed one of the parties – the Democrats – in registered voters.
When we first began seeing this phenomenon at The Arizona Republic Opinions pages some two decades ago, we asked our then illustrator Tony Bustos to design a logo for the independents that could rival the elephant and donkey.
He drew a cat, a decidedly independent creature, with a straw hat like Professor Harold Hill, as in “We’ve got trouble, right here in River City.”
No Labels has promised a 'Unity Ticket'
As these voters exercised their quiet rebellion on the registration rolls, it was just a matter of time before someone tried to quantify, classify and coalesce the phenomenon.
An example is Arizona State University’s announcement last October that it was creating a new research center “to examine growing political power of unaffiliated voters.”
This year, the political organization No Labels is spending $70 million to create a “Unity Ticket” for the 2024 presidential election.
This has made one of the major parties apoplectic, provoking Democrats nationally and in Arizona to try to strangle the baby in the cradle.
Democrats sue to keep them off ballot
The Arizona Democratic Party made national news last week when it announced it is suing No Labels on grounds that it technically botched the petition gathering.
Their lawsuit goes on to claim that one of their own, Adrian Fontes, the new Democratic secretary of state in Arizona, also blundered when he accepted No Labels’ botched paperwork.
Lawsuit alleges: No Labels Party broke the law to get on the ballot
All of this is out of character for Arizona Democrats, who are more accustomed to screaming at Republicans and chamber types for using the courts and petition technicalities to block candidates and initiatives from the ballot.
Democrats fancy themselves as The Party of Let The People Speak when they’re not The Party of Grab the Independent Voters by the Throat.
Nationally, Democrats have warned that a No Labels third-party ticket could put Donald Trump in the White House again.
“A sensible, centrist, moderate, anti-partisan candidate, as No Labels is seeking, will succeed in electing Trump, the most divisive, polarizing politician of modern times,” said Democratic strategist Paul Begala to CNN.
No Labels hasn't identified its donors
Roy Herrera, the Democrats’ attorney in Arizona, cautions that No Labels is a different kind of cat, a crafty cat, that has organized under a section of the Internal Revenue Code that lets it conceal its donors.
You know the expression “dark money.” All you need know is that the Democrats don’t like dark money that isn’t their own dark money.
Their lawsuit asserts that “To date, No Labels has not publicly disclosed its donors, leaving the sources of much of its funding largely unknown,” Capitol Media Services’ Howard Fischer reports.
“Nor has No Labels publicly identified the donors behind the initiative to have it certified as a political party in Arizona, despite federal laws requiring political party committees spending more than $5,000 to influence a federal election to identify their donors in filings with the Federal Election Commission.”
Its goal: To moderate the Rs and Ds
In a March 15 op-ed in The Hill, No Labels co-founder Benjamin F. Chavis Jr. explained that his organization is “not a third political party. We are a national movement of Democrats, Republicans and Independents working to bring America’s leaders together to develop common-sense two-party solutions to America’s biggest problems.”
In other words, they’re rallying the voters who took one look at America’s two traditional parties and said, “I’d rather be horsewhipped and lobotomized before I become a Republican or Democrat.”
Who can blame those voters?
America has grown more polarized as its two major parties grow more extreme. Chavis explained that No Labels would love nothing more than the two parties moderate so they could pack up and go home.
“If establishment figures in both parties don’t want an independent ticket to run, they can simply stop pandering to the loudest and most extreme voices in their respective parties.”
That’s an interesting proposition. One that would prompt many Arizonans to nod their head in agreement.
Not the Arizona Democratic Party.
They’re gonna sue.
Phil Boas is an editorial columnist for The Arizona Republic. Email him at phil.boas@arizonarepublic.com.
This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: No Labels movement makes Arizona Democrats afraid, very afraid
