More than $3.2 million in contributions from Wisconsin donorsators haves gone to special interest groups over the last two years, a record amount since January 2007, according to a report released Tuesday by the Wisconsin Democracy Campaign.

Special interest groups are not required to disclose any type of spending information to the public, so the report was dedicated to revealing as much as possible about the money used by these groups, according to Mike McCabe, director of the Wisconsin Democracy Campaign.

“This is an opportunity for people to get some idea of who is writing the checks,” McCabe said. “But this is only the tip of the iceberg.”

Special interest groups do not have to obey the disclosure laws or campaign limits that apply to candidates. As a result, these groups are able to spend far more on political advertisements than the candidates can, McCabe said.

“The report is an indication to the extent that the campaign is being hijacked,” he added. “These groups are putting words in the mouths of the candidates, and the voters aren’t able to hear from the candidates at all.”

The Republican and Democratic parties prefer that contributors give money directly to a candidate or to the party itself, rather than donating to a special interest group, according to officials from both groups.

“We have a mission, and we need resources to get out that message,” said Kirsten Kukowski, Republican Party of Wisconsin communications director. “We want to be able to control our message. We don’t want to rely on special interest groups to do that for us.”

The Democratic Party prefers to record the source of the money and how it is spent is recorded, said Jim Smith, director of theeh Assembly Democratic Ccampaign Ccommittee. When money is donated to a candidate, it is all out in the open, and the group is able to directly disclose how the funds are spent.

In contrast, special interest groups are unaccountable for the sources of their money and what is being done with it. The groups generally use contributions to run television and radio advertisements, send out direct- mail pieces and make robo calls to voters.

One such group, the Democratic Governors Association, uses their resources to help elect Democratic governors across the country, according to Brian Namey, the group’s press secretary.

“We are doing better financially than ever,” Namey said. “We will use those contributions to help keep a Democratic majority of governors in the elections from now until 2010.”

Wisconsin used to have some of the strongest disclosure laws in the country, according to McCabe. Today, he said, special interest groups are exploiting a loophole in the law, allowing them to overrun these laws.

“Wisconsin had a good tradition of clean and open and honest elections,” McCabe said. “These groups are at the forefront of the assault on these traditions.”