A non-profit hoping to get a third-party presidential candidate on the ballot in all 50 states this year says there is a conspiracy to stop them from succeeding.
No Labels, which is hoping to help create a viable third-party campaign in 2024, filed a formal complaint with the U.S. Department of Justice alleging that political insiders, commentators, and media are working together to discourage, threaten, and hamper the group’s efforts.
“Based on the evidence No Labels has presented to the Department of Justice,” said Dan Webb, a leader for the organization and former U.S. Attorney in Chicago. “No Labels is alleging these groups are participating in a racketeering conspiracy to use fear and threats of force to intimidate and harass representatives of No Labels, potential No Labels political candidates and No Labels supporters nationwide.”
The complaint requests consideration of racketeering and civil rights violations against an unnamed bi-partisan group of Congressional aides, online media organization Semafor, and fellow non-profits like The Lincoln Project and their leaders.
To announce the complaint, No Labels held a press conference on Thursday featuring a number of the organization’s leadership, volunteers, and advisors, including former Connecticut U.S. Senator Joe Lieberman. Lieberman serves as co-chair at No Labels.
“These alleged conspirators, based on the evidence we have presented to the Department of Justice, are taking it upon themselves to control voters’ choices, to limit the choices of the American people on election day, as if the voters in America can’t be trusted to do the right thing that is profoundly anti-democratic,” said Lieberman. “And I must say it’s particularly ironic and hypocritical when it comes from people who claim to be concerned about existential threats to democracy.”
In his arguments, Lieberman brought in the specter of authoritarian regimes in Iran, Russia, and North Korea, arguing that by blocking No Labels’ attempts to run a viable third-party candidate, the U.S. risks falling into voting systems similar to these countries.
Additionally, Lieberman filed a letter with President Joe Biden on Tuesday voicing the same concerns, particularly against the Delaware Department of Elections for an effort to block No Labels from the ballot in the president’s home state.
No Labels has also faced pointed opposition from lawmakers here in Connecticut. As outlined in a January 7thinvestigation by Inside Investigator, Connecticut Senate President Pro Tempore Martin Looney (D-New Haven) and Senate Majority Leader Bob Duff (D-Norwalk) co-authored an op-ed in the CT Post that called No Labels’ mission a “danger to American democracy.”
At issue, in part, is the fact that as a non-profit entity and not a political party, No Labels is not required by federal law to disclose its donor list. Detractors claim the organization is not the centrist organization it claims to be and that it instead pushes an ideology to benefit wealthy donors.
There is speculation that the third-party candidate could be the current Republican candidate and former South Carolina governor Nikki Haley. Haley has pulled ahead of fellow Republican alternatives like Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, but has so far failed to unseat Trump as the likely GOP choice come November.
Should Haley choose to pull out of the race after March’s Super Tuesday primary, Lieberman believes she could be a good candidate for No Labels to support.
“I’d say based on her record as governor of South Carolina and as Ambassador to the United Nations,” he said. “If she were interested in being on a No Labels bipartisan unity ticket – we have no idea really whether she would be – then, and I think I’m speaking for a lot of No Labels members, Governor Haley would deserve serious consideration, but that’s a decision for her to make and it’s not an easy one.”
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Sure, election laws are very complicated and in general are there for the benefit of the two major parties, but this complaint goes too far – attempting to squelch free speech and public dialog.
Stopped reading when Liberalman
(Not a misspelling) floated No Lables willing to support Nikki Haley. #1 Nikki is a warmongering Globalist.
#2 Nikki is ineligible to be President of the United States because at the time of her birth her parents had not become naturalized citizens, making her ineligible.