The Wisconsin state Senate passed a bill Tuesday that would require interest groups that run political ads in elections to register with the state government.
Currently, political ads that do not endorse a specific candidate are not regulated by the Government Accountability Board, a state organization that monitors campaign financing.
The aim of the new bill is to limit ads that do not endorse one candidate in particular, but could be viewed as partisan.
Instead of endorsing a candidate outright, one candidate may be implicated as ""for"" or ""against"" the issue in such ads. According to the bill's supporters, these ads need to be treated like those from specific campaigns or political parties and should be regulated by the government.
Julie Laundrie, spokesperson for one of the bill's sponsors, Sen. Jon Erpenbach, D-Waunakee, said these issue ads are violating campaign finance laws.
""Hundreds of thousands of dollars are going into elections that do not abide by our election laws. This bill makes any ad that is talking about a candidate, election or voting, within the election period, which is 60 days [before the election date], report to the GAB and they must follow the laws of our state,"" Laundrie said.
Opponents of the bill said they think issue ads are not the problem. Sen. Glenn Grothman, R-West Bend, said the problem with elections is that current laws make contributing to campaigns very difficult. He said organizations sometimes resort to running unregulated issue ads.
""There are so many [more] laws right now than there used to be and this is just another bill that restricts what people can do in campaigns. I think it would be better if we open things up more and make it easier to get the campaign funds to the candidates,"" Grothman said.
The GAB previously considered enacting similar reforms on its own. According to GAB Public Information Officer Reid Magney, if the new bill becomes law the GAB will not pursue further action.
