After nearly 60 percent of candidates for state government offices declined to answer a questionnaire on ethics and campaign reform, an extension has been implemented to garner more responses.

"Candidates are consciously trying to avoid taking positions to be on public record," Mike McCabe, executive director of the Wisconsin Democracy Campaign, said. "This is part of a changing political culture, and the changes are not for the better."

The survey — put out by the WDC, the League of Women Voters of Wisconsin and Common Cause in Wisconsin — was sent to candidates in all 99 State Assembly districts, as well as candidates for governor, lieutenant governor, attorney general, secretary of state, state treasurer and state Senate. Candidates were given two weeks to answer the questionnaire, which posed six questions covering proposed changes to state ethics and campaign finance laws.

Following the large lack of response, the groups agreed to an extension of Nov. 1. Late responses will be noted as such.

McCabe said the extension has persuaded more candidates to respond, with 16 more responding in the four weeks after the original deadline.

"We sent the questions out there," McCabe said. "But it wasn't until [the candidates] were taken to task by voters and reporters out in their own communities that they felt like they needed to answer the questions."

As of press time, Republican gubernatorial candidate Mark Green is among the candidates who have failed to answer the questionnaire.

"[Green] has already been on the record on all of these issues," Luke Punzenberger, a spokesperson for Green's campaign, said. "He's already put forth a comprehensive ethics and campaign finance package that clearly says where he is on these kinds of issues."

McCabe called such statements "cop-outs."

"If [candidates] truly staked out a position, then what do they have to hide?" he asked. "Saying that is just trying to sidestep these issues."

According to Punzenberger, Green's campaign is "certainly going to try" to answer the survey.

On the other side of this fall's gubernatorial race, incumbent Democratic Gov. Jim Doyle answered the questionnaire within the original two-week period.

"[Ethics reform] is something the governor has focused on since becoming governor," Anne Lupardus, deputy press secretary for the Doyle campaign, said. "[Gov. Doyle] has called for a number of ethics reform measures, including the merger of the Wisconsin Elections and Ethics Boards."

The merger, named Senate Bill 1, is awaiting passage by the full Legislature. According to Lupardus, the bill would provide greater enforcement power over state elections and ethics laws.

Green under fire

Green was called to task for various ethics violations Aug. 30, when the state Elections Board told the congressman to return $467,844 in donations from political action committees not registered in Wisconsin.

The money in question was transferred from Green's federal campaign fund in 2005 and brought to the Board's attention by the Wisconsin Democracy Campaign. The WDC alleged that Green should be subject to the board's "emergency rule," which prohibits state office candidates from transferring funds from prior federal campaigns if the donors are not registered in Wisconsin or the gifts exceed state guidelines.

The board first adopted the rule in January 2005, one day after Green made the $1.3 million transfer that included the $467,844 in illegal donation money.

As critics question the fairness of applying the emergency rule retroactively, McCabe maintained Green should still be held accountable, and a majority of the Democrat-dominated Elections Board agreed, voting 5-2 to uphold the WDC's complaint.

But state Sen. Mike Ellis, R-Neenah, who has authored a number of ethics reform initiatives like SB 1, said Green is the victim of a partisan attack.

"For the Elections Board to step in at the 11th hour and, in a clearly partisan act, say that the rules have suddenly changed — and in effect that they should be applied retroactively — is patently unfair," he said.

Green's campaign agreed, maintaining that the congressman complied with the rules as they were written at the time.

The money in question makes up about one-seventh of the $3.17 million Green reported in June. Doyle reported having $5.18 million at that time.