No Labels goes after opponents of third-party presidential bid in court

Source: Washington Post

November 24, 2024 at 6:00 a.m. EST


Leaders of the centrist group No Labels abandoned a planned third-party presidential bid in April after a successful campaign by Democratic allies of President Joe Biden damaged their public appeal and undermined their ability to recruit electable candidates.
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Now leaders of No Labels are fighting back in three federal courtrooms with a sprawling legal-discovery effort aimed at exposing the secret machinations they believe led to their project’s demise. Leaders of the moderate Democratic group Third Way and of Investing in US, a political operation funded by LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman, are fighting to limit the document production.

But documents already unsealed by the courts reveal remarkable details about private proposals for a wide range of hard-nosed tactics that would go beyond public efforts like ads, op-eds and meetings to discourage the No Labels campaign. The documents include emails exchanged between various Democratic strategists involved with efforts to oppose No Labels.

“Our main focus should be brand destruction but, where possible, we also need to throw up any and all roadblocks to stop them from being successful at signature-gathering,” Lucy Caldwell, one of the anti-No Labels strategists, wrote in a document uncovered during the legal battle.

Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2024/11/24/no-labels-goes-after-opponents-third-party-presidential-bid-court/