Arizona Daily Star publishes letter by Richard Grayson on Arizona Independent/No Labels Party

Today, Friday, February 20, 2026, the Arizona Daily Star published a letter by Richard Grayson titled "Independent" on page A13.

Arizona Daily Star/Tucson.com publishes letter by Richard Grayson, "When the state chooses your party"

Today, Tuesday, December 9, 2025, the Arizona Daily Star/Tucson.com published a letter, "When the state chooses your party," by Richard Grayson:

In Communist East Germany, the government simply assigned people to political parties. It was a quiet but powerful way to control political life: the state decided who you were.

Arizona shouldn’t be doing anything that even faintly resembles that history. Yet Secretary of State Adrian Fontes has said he will automatically reassign nearly 47,000 No Labels voters to the Arizona Independent Party becauses of the wishes of a new party chairman, without any formal input from those who chose to register with the No Labels Party. Fontes's office says people who don't like it can “just change it back.” But political identity is a fundamental right, not a clerical detail. Forcing voters into a party whose beliefs they may not share undermines voluntary political association.

No democracy should ever let the government choose a citizen’s party for them.

Richard Grayson

Arizona Daily Star/Tucson.com article on Clean Elections Commission's lawsuit against the No Labels Party's name change mentions Richard Grayson

Today, Friday, November 28, 2025, The Arizona Daily Star/Tucson.com published an article by Howard Fischer, "Arizona commission will sue to block political party's name change." 

The article began: 

Ignoring threats of being sued themselves, the Citizens Clean Elections Commission voted Friday to go to court to block the No Labels Party from rebranding itself as the Arizona Independent Party. The panel voted 4-1 to challenge the decision last month by Secretary of State Adrian Fontes to permit the name change.

Towards the end of the article, Richard Grayson's name came up:

There are about 47,000 people who signed up with the No Labels Party. Fontes' move appears to now automatically change their registration to the Arizona Independent Party.

That drew a complaint from Richard Grayson, a member of the No Labels Party who ran unsuccessfully as its nominee earlier this year in the special election in Congressional District 7.

He argued that the Arizona Independent Party is not simply a home for those who don't align with the major parties. Instead, he said, it has a belief system of its own.

He cited the party's web page, which lists among its beliefs that the U.S. military is "strongest in the world,'' that the party supports "strong borders and a workable immigration system,'' and an "all-of-the-above energy strategy'' including oil, gas, nuclear and renewables.

"So it's not an independent party,'' Grayson said. "They have an ideology."

Arizona Daily Star/Tucson.com publishes letter by Richard Grayson, "Opponent says: Let Grijalva do her job"

Today, Saturday, September 27, 2025, the Arizona Daily Star/Tucson.com published a letter, "Opponent says: Let Grijalva do her job," by Richard Grayson:

I was the No Labels Party candidate in the Sept. 23 special election in Congressional District 7. With less than 1% of the vote, I conceded. Adelita Grijalva won an overwhelming victory to become the next U.S. representative.

In the last House special election, in Virginia’s District 11 on Sept. 9, Democrat James Walkinshaw was sworn in by Speaker Mike Johnson the very next day, Sept. 10. Yet days after Grijalva’s uncontested win, Republicans on Capitol Hill are stalling, saying she will not be sworn in for weeks. I am a progressive who opposes sexual harassment of women, believing that I share these values with Green Party candidate Eduardo Quintana and Democratic nominee Adelita Grijalva.

This is unacceptable. The people of Congressional District 7 — stretching from Tucson through Southern Arizona, from Yuma County to Cochise County — have been without a voting member of the U.S. House for more than six months. Adelita Grijalva must be sworn in immediately as our congresswoman.

Richard Grayson

Arizona Daily Star column, "Political Notebook: Rule keeps two on CD7 ballot from debate," mentions No Labels Party Candidate Richard Grayson

Today, Friday, August 22, 2025, the Arizona Daily Star published a column by Tim Steller, "Political Notebook: Rule keeps two on CD7 ballot from debate," discusses No Labels Party candidate Richard Grayson and Green Party candidate Eduardo Quintana's exclusion from the debate between the major party candidates in the September 23, 2025 special election in Arizona's Seventh Congressional District.

Two candidates who will appear on the ballot for the special election in Congressional District 7 won’t be part of Tuesday’s televised debate.

Eduardo Quintana, of Tucson, is the Green Party candidate, and Richard Grayson, of Apache Junction, is the No Labels candidate. Neither one of them got 1% of the total votes cast in the July 15 primary election.

Under a rule adopted by the debate hosts, the Arizona Media Association and the Arizona Citizens Clean Elections Commission, that means they are not invited. The two candidates who won their primaries and did reach that threshold were Democrat Adelita Grijalva and Republican Dan Butierez. They’ll debate at 6 p.m. Tuesday, Aug. 26, at Arizona Public Media. It will be broadcast live on Arizona Public Media and possibly other stations, and the public is not invited to attend live. Quintana said he considers the rule “unfair,” noting that one percent of the primary vote is “more than all of our registered voters.”

Quintana is a Raytheon retiree and environmental activist who ran for U.S. Senate as the Green Party’s candidate in 2024. “The main reason I’m running is because of the Palestinian question,” Quintana said. “Our country is carrying out an illegal genocide with Israel.” “I want to use this campaign to bring that issue to the fore, as well as other issues that are important to us,” he said.

The Green Party’s slogan, he noted, is “People, planet, peace.” Beyond wanting the United States to cut off aid to Israel, Quintana said, he supports healthcare-for-all and a Green New Deal.

Grayson’s candidacy is a little — let’s say a lot — less earnest. He’s a perennial candidate who has the distinction of having run in states across the country. This time, he ran in part to tweak the No Labels party. Last year, the party won a judicial order preventing him and others from running as primary candidates under the No Labels banner. This year, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals overturned that ruling, opening the door for Grayson and others to pursue the party’s nomination.

He barely won it: One voter in Cochise County wrote him in, the only valid vote for a No Labels candidate in the primary. Grayson’s sincere political beliefs more or less align with the Democratic Party, he said, and he expects Grijalva to win the race and replace her father, Raul Grijalva, who died March 13. “It’s fun to be on the ballot. This is a hobby. I’m an old man,” Grayson said. “If anyone wants to vote for me, I assume it will be a mistake or they hate the other candidates on the ballot, or they’re mentally ill.”

Arizona Daily Star/Tucson.com publishes letter by Richard Grayson, "Arizona No Labels Party is not Andrew Cuomo’s No Labels"

Today, August 20, 2025, the Arizona Daily Star/Tucson.com published a letter by Richard Grayson, the No Labels Party candidate for Congress in the September 23 special election in Arizona's Seventh Congressional District:

As the first Arizona No Labels Party candidate to appear on the ballot — in the September 23 special election for the state’s 7th Congressional District — I want to make something clear: Arizona’s No Labels Party has no connection with the national group of the same name. That organization has endorsed Andrew Cuomo, the former New York governor who resigned in 2021 amid a sexual harassment scandal, in the New York City mayoral race.
Our state party’s new chair, former Phoenix Mayor Paul Johnson, has already emphasized this separation. Although I initially opposed his proposal to change our party’s name, I now realize I was wrong. I do not want to be linked with Andrew Cuomo in any way.
I am a progressive who opposes sexual harassment of women, believing that I share these values with Green Party candidate Eduardo Quintana and Democratic nominee Adelita Grijalva.

Richard Grayson

Arizona Daily Star/Tucson.com publishes letter by Richard Grayson on Arizona Clean Elections Commission

Today, June 4, 2025, the Arizona Daily Star/Tucson.com published a letter by Richard Grayson, the No Labels Party candidate for Congress in the special election in Arizona's Seventh Congressional District:

The Arizona Citizens Clean Elections Commission purports to be a strictly nonpartisan organization that “seeks to improve the integrity of Arizona state government and promote public confidence in the Arizona political process.” Yet on its website of the current candidates running for U.S. Representative in Arizona’s 7th Congressional District, every Republican and Democratic candidate has their campaign statement from the Arizona Secretary of State’s listing included, while those of the two Green Party candidates and the one No Labels Party candidate (myself) are excluded and do not appear. This is a clear example of what hypocrites this so-called Clean Elections Commission are: They are obviously favoring some candidates over others and should no longer be trusted. Not all Arizona voters are registered with the two major parties.

Richard Grayson