On October 16, U.S. District Court Judge Roberto Lange enjoined a South Dakota campaign finance disclosure law as applied to the Institute for Free Speech. The Institute wants to publish an analysis of two South Dakota ballot measures on the Institute’s web page. The Institute does not expect to take a position on the ballot measures, which relate to campaign finance. On October 8 it filed a federal lawsuit to protect itself, because the existing law seems to require the Institute to disclose its top five contributors if it publishes commentary about the ballot issues.

Here is the 13-page order in Institute for Free Speech v Jackley, 3:18cv-3017. The order depends on the fact that the Institute would not be spending any money, or virtually no money, just by posting its own analysis on its own web page. To the extent that the Institute wanted to send out a press release to news outlets mentioning its analysis, the cost for that would be virtually nothing as well. The state had argued that the Institute would not be in violation of the law even if it didn’t disclose, but the law itself seems to say that it would be in possible legal jeopardy, so the Institute received judicial relief.

On October 16, Alaska’s Lieutenant Governor, Byron Mallott, resigned from office. He is on the ballot as a candidate for re-election, but if he is elected, he will not accept the office and it will be vacant. See this story.

Alaska elects Governors and Lieutenant Governors as a team. Independent Governor Bill Walker is Mallott’s running mate. Walker and Mallott used the independent candidate petition procedure to get on the general election ballot, and the ballot labels them “petition nominees.” But the Alaska ballot also tells the party affiliation of each candidate for partisan office. Walker is labelled as “unaffiliated” but Mallott is labelled as “Democrat”, because he is a registered Democrat. Thanks to Political Wire for the link.

National Public Radio has this story about Unite America, a group which believes voters ought to elect more independent candidates to public office. Unite America has endorsed 29 independent candidates running in November 2018. Here is the story. The emphasis is on Colorado, the state in which Unite America is headquartered. Thanks to Ken Bush for the link.