'No Labels' On the NC Ballot in 2024? Have Democrats Been Out of Line?

 

Tomorrow, Sunday, in a special called meeting the State Board of Elections will make a decision regarding No Labels, the putative new political party that Pat McCrory is jointly leading, and whether it has navigated new and frankly unjustifiable questions about its purpose which Democrats on the SBOE have posed before they'll let No Labels on next year's ballot.

At its last meeting on July 6th, SBOE officials acknowledged that No Labels had submitted 14,797 verified signatures on a petition requesting ballot access, which according to law must be granted. That number of verified signatures is more than enough. Nevertheless (and here's where I have to agree with Pat McCrory that it's all political, and I'm not happy about it), the Democratic Chair of SBOE, Alan Hirsch, managed to delay approval for "more time to ask questions," the most important of which apparently runs "Who are you really, and who do you stand to hurt?" which is a solidly political consideration, appears to frustrate the law, and is therefore out of line.

I also fear what No Labels can do to enable Trump back into the White House, a place that man should never darken again, but pulling a stunt like delay to handicap a movement that has otherwise followed the law and met a demanding threshold -- that ain't a good look for Democrats. It's a lousy look and I rue the day:

As for who No Labels might field in 2024?

Well, that decision will not be made this year.

Republicans and Democrats alike have labelled No Labels a spoiler.

NC Newsline asked Catawba College political scientist Dr. Michael Bitzer this week about McCrory’s newfound attraction for a third party and their chances of making political history.

“The sense that I got was after the U.S. Senate nomination loss, he [McCrory] felt very much like a person without a political home,” said Bitzer.

And even as voters voice their objections about Democrats and Republicans or a rehash of 2020, there is a certain practicality as they get closer to casting their own ballot.

“In the end, people tend to be party loyalists and they tend to come home. And third parties tend to be the spoilers in American politics,” Bitzer explained. (Clayton Henkel, NCNewsline)