Topeka ? A bipartisan group of House members on Wednesday announced a campaign finance reform package that would increase disclosure of who is bankrolling political campaigns.

“Under current law, Kansans are left in the dark regarding where much of the money spent to elect or defeat candidates is coming from,” said state Rep. Ed O’Malley, R-Roeland Park.

State Rep. Paul Davis, D-Lawrence, is a member of the group of 25 House members.

“We are concerned the 2006 elections are upon us and still no movement has occurred on campaign finance reform,” Davis said.

The reform legislation would require:

¢ Disclosure of financing behind so-called “issue ads.”

¢ Timely disclosure of contributions to and expenditures by candidates during the final 11 days of a campaign.

¢ Identification of the candidate that political action committees and party committees hope to elect or defeat.

¢ Disclosure of political advertising involving recorded telephone messages.

The bill introduced by the group contains all of the measures recommended last year by the Kansas Governmental Ethics Commission.

The ethics commission proposed legislation after receiving numerous complaints during the 2004 election cycle about unidentified telephone messages advocating for or against candidates, and issue ads whose backers didn’t have to reveal their income sources. The commission’s measures, however, failed to move through the Legislature during the 2005 session.

“Electioneering in 2004 that met the letter of the law, but clearly not the spirit of the law, demonstrates the need for campaign finance reform,” O’Malley said.

In recent years, Kansas’ campaign finance laws have gained national criticism. In 2003, Kansas received an “F” on a report card of state campaign finance laws in a study conducted by the Pew Charitable Trusts.