No Labels can't stop candidates and a primary election it doesn't want
It remains an open question whether the No Labels Party must reveal its donors in Arizona.
The party’s insistence that it should be able to block candidates from running in Arizona under its banner, on the other hand, was wishful thinking.
In a letter dated Sept. 22, Secretary of State Adrian Fontes rejected No Labels’ request to exclude two people who have filed to run in next year’s state primary.
Neither of the men has the party’s blessing.
No Labels won't get what it wants
No Labels has repeatedly said that:
it doesn’t plan to field any candidates for Arizona office;
it won’t file campaign finance reports in Arizona given that the party is interested only in nominating candidates for president and vice president;
it doesn’t plan to hold a state primary election.
The first may be true in the pure form — the party itself won’t back or finance a candidate.
The second will be determined by the courts.
On the third, No Labels is out of luck.
Political parties 'shall' have primaries
Upon recognition earlier this year as a new political party, No Labels opened itself to a state primary.
Arizona statute says, “A new political party may become eligible for recognition and shall be represented by an official party ballot at the next ensuing regular primary election.”
The operative word being “shall.”
Beyond that, nothing stops someone who is registered with a political party from gathering sufficient nomination signatures to qualify the party’s primary election.
The threshold is even easier for new political parties, requiring fewer signatures.
For Grayson, this is performance art
And the threshold is virtually nonexistent for someone like Richard Grayson, one of the two people whom No Labels is trying to block.
Grayson, a dyed-in-the-wool Democrat and perennial candidate who describes his candidacy as performance art, plans on running as a write-in candidate.
He said he’s running chiefly to be a thorn in the side of No Labels, whose leadership he believes is helping former President Donald Trump get elected by siphoning votes away from President Joe Biden.
No Labels is not a political party: It's a scam
His plan is honed:
Wait until the deadline for submitting signatures;
See who qualifies for the ballot;
Look for an office in which there’s no qualified candidate;
and notify the Secretary of State’s Office of his plans to run as a write-in.
His name, along with those of other verified write-in candidates, will be made available on the web and at polling sites come election time.
He only needs a few votes to advance
Grayson wouldn’t need many votes.
State law requires a plurality of the votes cast for the office.
It could be one vote, theoretically.
Grayson has won three Arizona primaries by way of the write-in route — twice under the Green Party and once under Americans Elect — with as few as two votes.
Even if not a single person qualifies as a No Labels candidate, everyone registered with No Labels gets a blank ballot (with only a listing of offices up for election) for the August 2024 state primary.
And Grayson — unless challenged by another write-in for that yet-to-be-determined office — will represent No Labels.
Party support or not.
Reach Abe Kwok at akwok@azcentral.com. On X, formerly Twitter: @abekwok.
This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: No Labels will get the Arizona primary election it doesn't want
