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 The Oregon legislature had passed that law in 2005, but in 2007 Senator Westlund tried to get it repealed. It was finally repealed in 2009.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.

The New York Libertarian Party holds its state convention in Albany on April 23-24. The convention will choose nominees for statewide office. Kristin Davis’s campaign says she will attend the convention. She wishes to run for Governor of New York this year but has not decided whether to seek the Libertarian nomination or to run independently under the label “Personal Freedom.”

On March 4, 2010, an Arizona Superior Court upheld a law passed last year that requires all cities in Arizona to use non-partisan elections for their own city elections. See this story. Thanks to Nancy Hanks for the link.

Tucson had been the only city in Arizona that used partisan city elections. Generally speaking, Democrats have won city elections in Tucson most of the time. In the legislature last year, Republicans had been in favor of the bill that required non-partisan elections, and Democrats had mostly been against the idea.