Two Wisconsin state senators accused interest groups of "hijacking" the state's Nov. 7 elections in an announcement Tuesday that also outlines new campaign finance reforms to limit outside spending.

Announcing their intention of introducing the reforms in the upcoming legislative session, Sens. Mike Ellis, R-Neenah, and Jon Erpenbach, D-Middleton, said they were "alarmed" by the influence of spending by outside groups in the gubernatorial election this year.

"Unfortunately, because groups running phony issue ads can avoid disclosing the source of their funding, the public will never know exactly who is funding these ads," Erpenbach said. "These ads, which are typically the most negative ads in a campaign, hide behind a technicality in the law."

Wisconsin law says issue ads that mention a candidate by name 30 days before a primary or 60 days before a general election need not comply with campaign-finance disclosure laws or contribution limits.

The Ellis-Erpenbach proposal states the currently exempted ads would have to comply with those laws despite not expressly urging people to vote for or against a candidate. The ads also could not be funded by corporate donations.

"When they are run immediately before an election and they target a specific candidate, there's no doubt these are campaign ads," Erpenbach said.

And Ellis — who authored election reforms such as a bill that would merge the State Elections Board and State Ethics Board — said spending in the governor's race has already exceeded $10 million, with 80 percent of the money coming from four or five interest groups.

"Our bill does not prohibit outside spending, nor does it require a candidate to limit spending," Ellis said. "But it does provide for matching grants so that a candidate who does abide by limits has the wherewithal to respond if an opponent or an outside group tries to dump a ton of money into the campaign."

The proposal would provide candidates with grants to supplement their campaigns if their opponents exceeded spending limits.

"The Ellis-Erpenbach proposal is something the governor has long supported and called for, and he said he would sign it if it gets to his desk," said Anne Lupardus, deputy press secretary for Democratic Gov. Jim Doyle's re-election campaign.

Luke Punzenberger, spokesperson for the campaign of Doyle's opponent, U.S. Rep. Mark Green, R-Wis., said Green is also a big proponent of ethics and campaign-finance reform and that Green has authored bills at the federal level to increase transparency and reporting of campaign finances.

Punzenberger added that Green repeatedly asked Doyle to sign a "clean-campaign pledge" during this election.

"What the proposal would have done is penalize each campaign when one of the outside groups runs a negative attack ad against his opponent," Punzenberger said. "Unfortunately, Gov. Doyle has refused to sign that pledge, despite having voiced his support for one when running for governor in 2002."

But Doyle's campaign said the pledge would have been ineffective.

"Green's clean-campaign pledge wasn't worth the paper it was printed on," Lupardus said. "And at the time Mark Green came forth with it, there were already $100,000 of ads running against the governor, which have continued throughout campaign."

But regardless of support for reform, the monitoring of additional campaign-finance reporting could strain the State Elections Board's resources.

"We don't have the help we need now, and to add to the burden would make it very difficult for a very small staff right now," said Kyle Richmond, public information officer for the SEB. "Even what's regulated has increased volumes in the past 12 years. We would need help."