A new organization, Independent Indiana, has been launched. It will encourage individuals to run for office as independent candidates. See this story. The organization’s website is here.
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On August 29, Cornel West filed this brief in Ortiz v North Carolina State Board of Elections, the ongoing ballot access lawsuit that started in 2024 when the State Board refused to certify his party for the ballot even though the county boards said he had enough valid signatures. The U.S. District Court put him and his party on the ballot. He is now attempting to get the U.S. District Court to rule that the Board violated the U.S. Constitution when it acted as it did.
On August 29, U.S. District Court Judge Camela C. Theeler, a Biden appointee, struck down South Dakota’s February petition deadline for statewide initiatives. Dakotans for Health v Johnson, 4:25cv-4050. Here is the decision.
In 2023, the Eighth Circuit had struck down South Dakota’s deadline of one year before the election for initiative petitions. In response, the legislature had moved the petition deadline to May. But in 2025, it moved that deadline to February. The state argues that the early deadline is necessary in case the initiative is subject to court challenge, but that argument did not prevail.
Neil Chaudhary, a former member of the Police Commission of Newtown, Connecticut, will run in November 2025 for his old position. But this time he is running as a Forward Party nominee, and not the nominee of any other party. See this story.
Newtown has a population of 27,173 and is in Fairfield County. Its Police Commission has five members, each of whom serve four-year terms. The office is partisan. Virtually all local elections in Connecticut are partisan.
This news story explores whether No Labels, a qualified party in Arizona, could become a political success.