South Dakotans for Open and Clean Government sponsored the initiative and formed as a Ballot Question Committee (BQC) to promote the issue.
[7] In January, 2008, South Dakotans for Open and Clean Government announced that they had received $10,000 to support their efforts from Americans for Tax Reform, a national taxpayer advocacy group.
Opponents of Initiated Measure 10 have said that the South Dakota Conservative Action Council must release its donor list because it made a donation to the ballot committee.
Supporters of 10 say that it is hypocritical for opponents to attack it on this issue because they are not calling for other 501c nonprofit groups that have given to other statewide ballot campaigns ("VoteYesForLife.com," Yes on 11; "Healthy Families," No on 11, and "NO on 10") to release their donor lists.
Supporters of Measure 10 filed a lawsuit in late October alleging that the Brown County Commission acting illegally when it passed a resolution in opposition to 10.
[11] On April 3, South Dakota Secretary of State Chris Nelson certified the measure for the fall ballot after a random sample of 5% of the submitted signatures indicated a sufficiently high validity rate.