As House Republicans have descended into chaos following a series of fights over the speakership and former President Donald Trump faces down four criminal indictments, the centrist group No Labels is moving ahead with a spoiler campaign that they appear to know will boost Trump's prospects, wrote Heather Digby Parton for Salon.
"We've known for a while that No Labels has been planning to run an independent candidate which they have assured everyone they would only do if it would not play spoiler and elect Donald Trump," wrote Parton. "Such assurances have always been empty since their pollster Mark Penn (who is married to Nancy Jacobson, the leader of the organization) has been MAGA-friendly for years."
According to the centrist think tank Third Way, which opposes the No Labels plan, the group has effectively abandoned the promise not to act as a spoiler, as its new strategy is to run a Republican candidate who would specifically deny 270 electors to any one candidate, and force Congress to hold a contingent election which — per the memo — No Labels believes will give them "leverage to cut a deal" and pledge their candidates' electors to the major candidate of their choice.
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"It's very special that No Labels believes it can or should 'cut a deal' to install the next president without winning a majority of electoral votes," wrote Parton. "Apparently, Donald Trump has convinced these supposedly principled centrists that corrupting the election even more than he did is perfectly respectable."
But even more problematic, this is not actually how such a scenario would play out — if no one gets a majority, there's no horse-trading of electors. Rather, the House of Representatives gets to hold a vote on who becomes president, and the vote goes by whoever holds a majority of state delegations, which would be Republicans.
"I have to say, it's very fitting that a supercilious centrist group like No Labels would deliver the death blow to American democracy.," concluded Parton. "I'm sure they'll find a way to blame the Democratic hippies for it anyway."
