The State Elections Board issued an official order to gubernatorial candidate Mark Green Wednesday, demanding he return disputed campaign money and allowing him 10 days to comply.

According to the order, Green, a Republican, must divest his campaign of all contributions received from out-of-state political action committees not registered in Wisconsin — an amount totaling $467,844.60.

This order additionally verifies claims made by the Wisconsin Democracy Campaign last month alleging the congressman transferred $1.3 million, $467,844 of which were donated by unregistered PACs, from a prior federal campaign.

The funds transfer fell subject to the Election Board's controversial "emergency rule," which currently prohibits such transfers of unregistered donations by state office candidates. Created one day after the transfer in question and applied retroactively to Green, the rule drew outrage from many of the congressman's supporters.

Wednesday's ruling also ordered Green to return all registered PAC money exceeding the $485,190 limit.

"The Green for Wisconsin campaign has 10 days to respond or the SEB will initiate an enforcement action," said Kyle Richmond, public information officer for the State Elections Board. "If they don't respond, the SEB can take them to court."

The order told the Green campaign it could return the PAC money, give it to a state fund that provides grants to public schools or turn it over to charities approved by the Internal Revenue Service. Other possible actions include going to court to ask a judge to stop the board from enforcing its order or waiting for the Department of Justice to enforce the order in court.

Green's attorney, Don Millis, said he received the order today but is yet undecided on a response.

"We have not settled on a course of action yet," Millis said. "We probably will in the next day or two."

And Green's campaign has experienced some positive responses from the ordeal.

"After the SEB's decision, we gave folks in Wisconsin who contacted our office an outlet through which to donate to Mark," Luke Punzenberger, a spokesperson for Green's campaign, said. "The phones became flooded with people in Wisconsin figuring out ways to help Mark Green raise more money."

Yet in anticipation of the SEB's order, Democratic Gov. Jim Doyle's campaign unveiled a new television advertisement linking Green to recent caucus scandal and "breaking Wisconsin law" Wednesday.

The ad, first airing last night, displays a number of newspaper headlines citing last week's Elections Board decision but also addresses accusations of Green's staff campaigning on state time.

Green's campaign responded, maintaining they followed the law and that the Elections Board is partisan and influenced by Doyle.

"When Mark was originally running for governor, before the transfer, we contacted the SEB, the same people that just voted, and asked how we can do this," Punzenberger said. "And they told us how to make the conversion, and we followed the instructions to a 'T.' Last week, they decided to change their minds."

Last week's decision in favor of ordering Green to return the money came to a 5-2 vote. The current board consists Democratic and Republican members, as well as a Libertarian, all appointed by state officials or state political party organizations, but the board is dominated by Democrats and a Republican member recused himself.

Anne Lupardus, deputy press secretary for Doyle's campaign, stressed that the board is bipartisan and that Doyle supports ethics reform, including the merger of the State Elections and Ethics Boards, or Senate Bill 1.

"The governor called for SB1 and other ethics reforms many times," she said. "Republicans say they supported the bill but are now scrambling to distract voters from such reforms."

The negative campaigning has been ongoing in the gubernatorial race, and some critics believe the candidates are forcing voters to choose the lesser of two evils.

"Ethics and money are huge issues in this race," said Jay Heck, executive director of Common Cause in Wisconsin. "And I think that they are playing such a big role, the candidate to win will have to prove to be the least slimy of the two."