The Government Accountability Board announced its intentions Tuesday to regulate issue advertisements, which some special interest groups say encroach on their First Amendment rights.

With this rule, all groups that air ads near elections would be required to disclose who is funding the ad, as well as meet additional regulations, such as not being able to receive contributions from corporations.

These new rules on interest groups are similar to regulations that are already in place for candidates.

According to Mike Wittenwyler, attorney for several groups throughout Wisconsin who formed a coalition against the rule, the GAB’s authority to impose this new rule will likely be challenged in the near future.

Some of the groups that may challenge the GAB include the Coalition for American Families, Wisconsin Farm Bureau Federation and Wisconsin Right to Life.

“What they are doing is creating law and it’s not only unconstitutional, but they didn’t have any authority to do it,” said R.J. Johnson, director of the Coalition for American Families.

According to Johnson, the rule takes into question a citizen’s right to the First Amendment because it would leave out certain groups from being able to express their opinions.

To take effect, the rule would have to go through a series of public hearing sessions and then be passed by the Legislature

According to Mike McCabe, director of the Wisconsin Democracy Campaign, this is not likely to be completed before the spring Supreme Court elections. It could, however, be in effect by 2010.

According to McCabe, the rule has a good chance of being passed by the new Legislature, and there are a couple major benefits to voters if it is passed into law.

“It’s good for voters on two fronts,” McCabe said. “It enables voters to see who is really behind these campaign ads. It (also) gives voters the opportunity to hear from the candidates, compared to this last state Supreme Court race were you almost heard nothing from the candidates.”

If there was a law regulating who funds issue advertisements, it would not have as big of a part in campaigns, McCabe said. In the previous Supreme Court race, 90 percent of the advertisements were by groups not sponsored by the candidate.

“I think you would see less really high-priced television advertising, and the candidates could rely more on face-to-face contact with voters,” McCabe said.

However, Johnson said this could cut back on the number of advertisements from special interest groups, since the regulations would force groups to register as political action committees, which most interest groups are not.

Johnson added the rule is not based on valid legal ground and the GAB’s own attorney advised against their intentions. The rules imposed on groups would stamp out their ability to inform the public on certain issues, having a negative effect on Wisconsin voters.

“A well-informed electorate is what is affected here, and the issue ads are a form of public information,” Johnson said. “So who suffers here, in my opinion, are the people who deserve to know the information.”