The Arizona Democratic Party (AZDP) filed a complaint against the No Labels Party (NLP) last week, seeking to force Arizona’s newest third party to disclose its list of donors or lose its status within the state amid potential Democratic concerns that NLP’s presence on the ballot could help former President Donald Trump win Arizona in 2024.
AZDP’s complaint specifically demands Secretary of State Adrian Fontes suspend NLP until the party discloses its donors. NLP told The Arizona Sun Times that the development amounts to “voter suppression.”
The complaint alleges that NLP neglected to register with the secretary of state as a political action committee and argues the nascent party should be required to release names of donors who paid for the signature gathering process that garnered over 50,000 petitions for ballot access, or at minimum disclose the party’s expenses since receiving ballot access, reported 12 News.
Reached by The Sun Times for comment via email, NLP National Co-Chair Dr. Benjamin Chavis Jr. said in a statement that Arizona Democrats are “desperate to keep voters from having a real choice for president and vice president,” and accused the party of “continually abusing the legal system to tie us up in court—at taxpayer expense—in a campaign that amounts to voter suppression.”
Chavis wrote that the language of the statute referenced by Arizona Democratic Party attorney Roy Herrera in the party’s complaint “plainly says it applies only to entities ‘organized for the primary purpose’ of influencing elections for state or local offices in Arizona.”
“No Labels’ ballot-access activities relate only to federal offices,” Chavis wrote, with original emphasis. “And in case anyone needs a refresher, the presidency and vice presidency of the United States of America are federal offices.”
The party confirmed to The Sun Times in March that it viewed its role as “an insurance policy” should both the Democratic Party and Republican Party nominate candidates “the vast majority of Americans don’t want.”
In such a scenario, NLP said it would use its ballot access as a “launching pad” for another third party candidate to run in the state. However, in a statement posted to Twitter, NLP promised “No one at No Labels has any interest in fueling a spoiler effort.”
An important update from No Labels. https://t.co/gJ5F11gR4W pic.twitter.com/jaBZlsXv43
— No Labels (@NoLabelsOrg) March 9, 2023
That statement came shortly before AZDP named Secretary of State Adrian Fontes and several state election officials as defendants in an April lawsuit filed keep NLP off the ballot.
AZDP’s lawsuit cited federal law requiring political committees that spend more than $5,000 to influence an election to identify their donors. No Labels is a registered 501(C)(4) nonprofit corporation, a classification some say is used for dark money groups, located in Washington, D.C. that was founded in 2009. AZDP also alleged that NLP continued gathering signatures after key members signed an affidavit attesting to the validity of the complete list of signatures.
At the time, NLP called the lawsuit “undemocratic and outrageous” and suggested it was politically motivated by the AZDP’s alleged fear of having another opponent on the Arizona ballot.
Liberal think-tank Third-Way may have lent credence to claims that Democrats fear NLP’s ballot access when it warned that NLP could pull left-wing voters away from the eventual Democratic nominee and pave the way for a Republican victory.
The Sun Times reported extensively on NLP’s structure, history, and funding after the party received recognition in Arizona. While the organization does not disclose its funders, names of donors gathered from internal documents include Republican megadonor Nelson Pletz, billionaire private equity investor Marc Rowan, and Berkshire Partners LLC co-founder Carl Ferenbach. NLP also solicited Hungarian-American businessman George Soros for funding to no avail.
NLP gave $1.2 million to Republican candidates in 2022, but the group’s top recipient was former U.S. Representative Carolyn Bordeaux, a Georgia Democrat who ultimately lost her primary in a newly redrawn district.
More than 7,000 voters from Maricopa County and Pima County have registered with NLP since it was recognized in March when it joined the Arizona Republican Party, Arizona Democratic Party, and Arizona Libertarian Party as the fourth party to be recognized in the state.
The secretary of state declined to comment to The Sun Times but noted that NLP was given ballot access after meeting state requirements.
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Tom Pappert is a reporter for The Arizona Sun Times and The Star News Network. Follow Tom on Twitter. Email tips to [email protected].
Photo “People Voting” by Wyofile Wyofile. CC BY 2.0.
