[media-credit name=’SUNDEEP MALLADI/Herald photo’ align=’alignnone’ width=’648′][/media-credit]Nine freshman Democrats introduced campaign finance reform legislation Wednesday that would impose regulations on so-called "issue advertising" prior to state elections.

The Assembly bill mirrors legislation proposed earlier this year by state Sen. Jon Erpenback, D-Middleton, and Sen. Mike Ellis, R-Neenah, the Legislature's bipartisan team on ethics and elections reform.

Although defining "mass communication" somewhat differently, both bills impose Wisconsin registration and reporting requirements upon any person or organization that refers to a candidate within 60 days of a state election through mass media.

The bills would also require such persons and organizations to report all activity prior to the 60-day period involving the candidate, the elected state office position or a political party.

State Rep. Gordon Hintz, D-Oshkosh, said the nine freshman Democrats were brought together through a common path to the Capitol — all were involved in tight election races last year that were "largely hijacked" by outside interest groups.

"We're defined by what happened to us in 2006," Hintz said at a news conference. "We're happy to be here today because it meant that we won, but we don't think it's the best way that we should be electing people in Wisconsin."

Shortly after the November election, lawmakers challenged the legislative body to pass reform that would put an end to what Democratic Gov. Jim Doyle has called "phony ads."

While some campaign finance legislation in the past has aimed to regulate spending and fundraising by candidates, Assembly Speaker Mike Huebsch, R-West Salem, said that route is not the correct solution.

"I'm going to be very cautious about limiting people's First Amendment ability to speak ill of their government," Huebsch said at a news conference Tuesday. "The two candidates and those individuals that want to try to influence the race should have the ability to do so."

Instead, Huebsch said he supports reform similar to the disclosure bills proposed by the Assembly Democrats and the two senators.

"The best campaign finance reform out there is full disclosure." Huebsch said. "If voters have the ability to know who is spending, then they can take that into consideration. Then the voters have the informed knowledge of who's paying what."

At the news conference Wednesday, Rep. Kim Hixson, D-Whitewater, acknowledged the bill would not actually prevent issue advertising, but rather encourage openness.

"This bill won't stop negative advertising, but it will stop unregulated negative advertising," Hixson said. "What we're trying to do is level the playing field."

Jay Heck, executive director of government watchdog group Common Cause in Wisconsin, said the current election system is unfair to candidates because they often have to fight unregulated issue advertising.

He added the proposed legislation would eliminate Wisconsin's "single largest loophole" in campaign finance law like the McCain-Feingold Act did for federal elections in 2002. Similar to the Wisconsin bills, the federal act also regulated issue advertising prior to elections.

"As far as McCain-Feingold goes, it does work well," Heck said. "It would do an enormous amount in Wisconsin."

Heck said the bills seem to have enough votes to pass the Legislature and go to a seemingly supportive Doyle. If signed, the new extended regulation would become effective immediately.

Speaker forms IT problem task force

In response to the more than $170 million state agencies spent on failed computer projects over the past two years, Huebsch announced Wednesday that he is forming a task force to investigate problems and find solutions.

"This task force will look for answers about how this pattern of failures was allowed to develop, identify ways to prevent any more of them in the future and hold state agencies accountable for wasting the taxpayers' money," Huebsch said in a statement.

One of the agencies identified in the announcement was the University of Wisconsin System, which abandoned a $26 million computer software project two years ago.

State Rep. Phil Montgomery, R-Green Bay, will lead the task force, Huebsch said, but no other members were announced.