On March 25, an Arizona state trial court judge ruled that political parties have no right to change their names. If they want to change their names, they must follow the procedures for a new party, including a petition. Arizona Clean Elections Commission v Fontes, Maricopa County Superior Court, cv 2025-064149. Here is the seven-page opinion.
The opinion makes no mention of the many other states that have allowed parties to change their names. The opinion does not discuss the problem that if a party wants to change its name and submits a petition as though it were a new organization, the old party would still remain on the ballot as long as enough people were registered into the old party (two-thirds of 1%).
The case came about because No Labels Party decided to change its name to the Arizona Independent Party. If the Arizona Independent Party were to petition as a new party, it would face the handicap that its old essence would still be on the ballot, so the party under its new name would be forced to compete against its former self, under the old name.
The decision says nothing about whether a party can have the word “independent” in its name. The plaintiffs in the lawsuit, who had sued the Secretary of State over his decision to allow the name change, had argued that even if parties can change their name, the name change “Arizona Independent” could not be allowed because use of the word “independent” would cause confusion.
Presumably No Labels is still on the ballot and its registrants will be converted back to No Labels registrants. Filing for the party’s primary had already closed (except for write-in declarations of candidacy) and the party has quite a few candidates for federal and state office. UPDATE: this story says the party will appeal, but that the Secretary of State will not appeal.
Teri Hourihan will be on the ballot in the No Labels primary as a candidate for governor. She began gathering her signatures as a No Labels candidate. She is not aligned with the fools who are responsible for the debacle of the illegal name change. Mr. Winger, nobody has to “revert” to being registrants of the No Labels Party because no one in any of Arizona’s 15 counties had their registration changed. The online registration form has ONLY listed the No Labels Party as a choice and not one county recorder changed anyone’s party registration to the now-defunct name. It existed only in the imagination of the dimwitted Paul Johnson, Hugh Lytle and their crooked cronies and the equally dimwitted Secretary of State.
Why does Teri Hourihan talk about herself in the third person?
The Secretary of State is not going to appeal. So like it or not, Mr. Winger, legally, your precious Arizona Independent Party never existed, so you can stop pontificating unless you want to keep making as ass of yourself in public.
I’m not Mr. Winger and I don’t care about your party regardless of what it’s called. I was just asking why you refer to yourself in the third person. Would you please explain?
The Secretary of State’s website today lists 41,484 registrants in the Arizona Independent Party. I suppose that will change, but it shows that the party’s registrants had been switched into the Arizona Independent Party.
Is Teri hot? That’s the important question.
Is Herbert a loser? That’s the more important question.
https://teriann4azgov.org/about
Not bad for a politician broad, but it looks like she’s been blacked.