No Labels is getting on state ballots, drawing a lawsuit and concerns about a spoiler
MICHEL MARTIN, HOST:
There is something that some Republicans and Democrats agree on, its concerns about a centrist political group called No Labels. The group is on the ballot in Colorado, Alaska, Oregon and Arizona. The two main political parties are questioning its agenda and who is funding it. Ben Giles from member station KJZZ in Phoenix has this report.
BEN GILES, BYLINE: Ryan Clancy is the lead strategist at No Labels, a Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit trying to tee up the possibility at least of a third party candidate running for president in 2024.
RYAN CLANCY: We're going for as many states as we can get across the country.
GILES: In Arizona, rumors persisted that No Labels could offer independent Senator Kyrsten Sinema a new platform. But Clancy insists that No Labels is a one-ticket operation, a presidential insurance policy for dissatisfied Republicans and Democrats.
CLANCY: So the only way this works is if, in the view of the public, the major party nominees are unappealing enough and a potential unity ticket is appealing enough that there seems like a viable path to Electoral College victory.
GILES: No Labels hasn't yet decided if the conditions are ripe for a so-called unity ticket. But they're committed to facilitating the infrastructure for such a candidate, just in case.
CLANCY: If you want to use, like, a NASA analogy, we're building the launching pad for a potential unity ticket run. If a ticket were to actually run, they would have to build the rocket ship to get to the White House.
GILES: Republicans and Democrats alike have raised concerns that No Labels could play spoiler, especially as polls have shown broad dissatisfaction with the current 2024 frontrunners, President Biden and former President Donald Trump. No Labels has gained access to the ballot in Arizona, Colorado, Alaska and Oregon. In Arizona, it's run into another controversy. The secretary of state now refers to it in legal documents as the No Labels party, a label that the organization rejects.
CLANCY: I mean, we're not a political party. We've never claimed to be one.
GILES: Political parties and committees trying to influence the outcome of an election have to follow certain rules, like abiding by contribution limits and disclosing expenses. No Labels is a registered nonprofit, so it's not required to disclose where its funding comes from.
ROY HERRERA: We have an organization that wants to be recognized as a political party, but it's simply not disclosing who their donors are.
GILES: Attorney Roy Herrera is suing No Labels on behalf of the Arizona Democratic Party, which wants to bar the organization from the ballot. Democrats acknowledged in their suit that No Labels is a nonprofit. Instead, the case hinges on a technicality and how No Labels gathered enough signatures to qualify for the ballot. No Labels calls the lawsuit baseless. But to Eric Spencer, a former Arizona state elections director, those signatures could raise financial issues. He says if the signatures were paid for, which he assumes, state rules make it clear that No Labels should have registered as a political committee.
ERIC SPENCER: The Arizona Election Procedures Manual is reasonably clear that those qualification efforts are subject to campaign finance law.
GILES: Federally, No Labels exists in something of a gray area. To the Federal Election Commission, No Labels doesn't yet have to register as a political party thanks to a 15-year-old court case dealing with a previous third-party contender. Adav Noti is legal director with the Campaign Legal Center. He argued the losing end of that case for the FEC.
ADAV NOTI: The court allowed, you know, an organization in sort of similar circumstances to go forward without being subject to contribution limits or disclosure. And so that's what No Labels is availing itself of now.
GILES: That allows No Labels to operate as what Noti calls the epitome of a dark money group.
NOTI: It's raising and spending money to influence elections. And it's raising and spending that money without being subject to contribution limits and without being subject to disclosure.
GILES: As for No Labels, they're not talking about their finances. The organization did not respond to a follow-up question about whether they have an obligation to voters to disclose their donors.
For NPR News, I'm Ben Giles in Phoenix.
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