Following Wisconsin's most expensive Supreme Court election in history, Senate Democrats introduced two proposals Thursday to reform campaign finance for judicial candidates.

The bills would increase public funding available to judicial candidates and impose new regulations on issue advertising, which is currently not required to report spending to the State Elections Board.

Senate Majority Leader Judy Robson, D-Beloit, and others gathered at the Capitol Thursday morning to announce the legislation, adding to a growing list of election and ethics reform proposals.

"This spring we saw another reminder of how broken our system is, with over $6 million being spent on the race for Wisconsin Supreme Court," Sen. Pat Kreitlow, D-Chippewa Falls, said in a statement. "Neither candidate accepted public financing, because under our current system, they would never be able to compete."

Under a bill authored by Kreitlow, Supreme Court candidates could receive $100,000 for primary elections and $300,000 for general elections. They could also receive matching dollars spent by privately funded candidates and dollars spent by outside interest groups in their opponent's favor.

Both candidates in the last election — Annette Ziegler and Linda Clifford — reported spending substantially more than one million dollars. The election also attracted millions spent by outside interest groups.

On April 3, Ziegler, the Washington County Circuit Court judge, defeated Madison attorney Clifford with 58 percent of the statewide vote.

Although he is a longtime supporter of ethics reform legislation, Sen. Mike Ellis, R-Neenah, responded to the proposals with a letter of sharp criticism addressed to Robson.

"Increasing the amounts available to candidates — even when solely to Supreme Court candidates — is a hollow promise if there are insufficient funds available," Ellis wrote in the letter.

Earlier this year, Ellis and co-author Sen. Jon Erpenbach, D-Middleton, reintroduced comprehensive reform legislation — Senate Bill 12 that would apply to all elections — but it has not received a public hearing.

On Thursday, Robson moved the newly proposed bills on the fast track, saying they could be scheduled for public hearing Tuesday and would soon after be forwarded to the Senate for vote.

Mike McCabe, executive director of the government watchdog group Wisconsin Democracy Campaign, said it is easier to build support for limited-scope legislation compared to larger packages like SB 12.

"More comprehensive reform measures are a tougher sell, and it will lake longer to reach paydirt on those issues," he said. "At this point, I'll take whatever reform we can get."

Like the bipartisan creation of a Government Accountability Board in February, McCabe said the Senate Democrats' proposals would be a step in the right direction.

"We're happy to start with the Supreme Court because the problem is obvious there," McCabe said.

In his letter, Ellis said any narrow improvement from the Democrats' proposals would be accomplished across all government elections by SB 12.

"Your package only deals with Supreme Court races and disclosure — addressing two very limited parts of a much broader problem," Ellis wrote. "There are literally hundreds of elections for statewide offices for every Supreme Court election in Wisconsin."