[media-credit name=’JEFF SCHORFHEIDE/Herald photo’ align=’alignright’ width=’336′][/media-credit]Scores of protesters held a rally outside the state Assembly chamber Tuesday, shouting for Republican leaders to schedule a vote on a controversial campaign ethics bill.

Protesters' angry calls stemmed from last week's private Republican caucus vote to kill Senate Bill 1, a measure that had aimed to bring campaign finance and election reform to the state.

Storming near the Assembly chamber, and later by the Republican caucus room, a number of citizen action groups wielded signs reading phrases like "Stop Capitol Corruption" and shouted accusatory chants such as "Vote up or down, you cowards!"

"We're here to say we want this bill up for a vote and we want it to pass," said Rachel Butler, a University of Wisconsin freshman who is a member of WISPIRG's UW chapter.

While protesters shouted derogatory comments at Assembly Republicans as they headed to the session floor, they applauded Rep. Mark Pocan, D-Madison, and other Democratic members who have been actively calling on Republican leaders to schedule the bill for a full Assembly vote.

After Assembly lawmakers met only briefly to discuss various other measures, they quickly decided to caucus, leaving protesters trailing behind them shouting for reform.

Although SB 1 garnered strong bipartisan support in the Senate last fall, a Democratic effort Tuesday to pull the bill from the Rules Committee and bring it to the floor for debate failed on a 43-53 vote.

Democrats criticized the Republican lawmakers for their steadfast opposition to the bill they praised as the single most comprehensive ethics reform measure in Wisconsin. SB 1 would have combined the state's Ethics and Elections Boards to create a new Government Accountability Board with expanded investigatory powers.

Rep. Terri McCormick, R-Appleton, who was one of the few Republicans to support the bill, urged her fellow colleagues to not look at SB 1 as a partisan issue.

"I see the bill as a bipartisan effort to look at ourselves very carefully in the mirror at how we make decisions in the state Legislature," she said.

Democrat and Republican supporters have lauded the bill as an effective way of preventing future corruption, like the 2002 Legislative Caucus Scandal in which five state lawmakers were convicted of misusing their public offices for private campaign work.

But Assembly Republican leaders said Wisconsin already has one of the best campaign ethics atmospheres in the nation.

"We're already a model for the country and we will once again set the standard of going even further," Assembly Majority Leader Mike Huebsch, R-West Salem, said, adding other bills considered by the body Tuesday night would have a greater impact than SB 1.

Democrats, however, disagreed, adding SB 1 is the best measure to restore the public's trust after the 2002 scandal.

"The American public is disgusted with the conduct of their public officials," Rep. Joe Parisi, D-Madison, said. "Everything that people think about the Legislature and about their elected officials — by not bringing this up to a vote, we're saying, 'Yep, that's true.'"

With Republican representatives effectively acting to kill SB 1 just days before the legislative session's end on Thursday, the measure's supporters will have to start from scratch next legislative session.