Ben Westlund, a former independent State Senator in Oregon, and an independent candidate for Governor in 2006, died on March 7. At the time of his death, he was the elected State Treasurer of Oregon. He had started his career as a Republican, had switched to being an independent, and then had become a Democrat. See here.

As a Senator, Westlund authored a bill to repeal the Oregon primary screenout. A “primary screenout” is a law saying primary voters may not sign an independent candidate’s petition. The Oregon legislature had passed that law in 2005, but in 2007 Senator Westlund tried to get it repealed. It was finally repealed in 2009.

Westlund qualified for the ballot as an independent candidate for Governor in 2006, but complying with the law was so expensive, he dropped out of the race before turning in his county-verified signatures to the Secretary of State, because petitioning had eaten up so much of his campaign funds.