The Wisconsin State Elections Board rejected a proposal last week for campaign finance disclosure by a 5-4 vote.

The proposed state reform, based on the federal McCain-Feingold law, called for the regulation of soft money used by special interest groups to run issue advocacy ads.

Jay Heck, the executive director of Common Cause in Wisconsin, a nonpartisan advocacy group, called the failure to adopt the campaign finance reform a “tragedy” for Wisconsin.

“It will mean that unregulated, undisclosed and unlimited special interest money will inundate the 2006 elections,” he said.

Issue ads, or what Heck calls “widely disseminated communications” and “phony issue ads,” are used by groups to influence the outcome of an election.

“They distort the election process and corrupt the public policy process,” he said, adding that as a result of the vote by the Elections Board, ads attacking candidates will continue to run at the state level.

The McCain-Feingold Campaign Reform bill, signed by President Bush in 2002, passed with a strong bipartisan majority in both the House and the Senate. The legislation bans soft money contributions to national parties while increasing individual hard money contribution limits.

The bill’s purpose is to encourage greater individual participation in the election finance system and to provide the public with more accurate and timely information.

The Board failed to approve the Wisconsin equivalent of the McCain-Feingold bill in last week’s vote.

The Elections Board is composed of nine members: four Democrats, three Republicans, one Libertarian and one appointment from the chief justice of the Supreme Court.

Martha Love, the only Democrat on the Board to vote against reform, joined the three Republican and one Libertarian Board members, who voted to defeat the proposal.

The outcome of last week’s decision has caused some to question Governor Jim Doyle’s dedication to campaign finance reform.

However, Melanie Fonder, a spokesperson for Doyle, said the Governor repeatedly made it clear he supports reform and that he is disappointed with the Elections Board ruling.

Doyle campaigned for governor in 2002 with a strong campaign finance reform plan. But for the second time in the past four months, he has not taken action to convince the Democrats on the Elections Board to vote for reform, according to Heck.

“This latest episode where Gov. Doyle, who did nothing to convince Martha Love [to vote for reform], is another example of his insincerity for campaign finance reform,” Heck said.

Fonder said “it’s very unfortunate,” but she placed most of the blame on the Republicans. She also noted that if a single Republican had been willing to vote for reform, the legislation would have passed.

“The Governor is disappointed that the Republicans killed this,” Fonder said.

Heck, on the other hand, noted that the Republicans have always opposed reform and were never expected to vote in favor of regulation.

“[It is wrong] to suggest that Republicans are to blame here,” Heck said.