Campaign-finance reforms sought

Topeka ? Gov. Kathleen Sebelius wants a new law requiring greater campaign finance disclosure.

Sebelius said the current one, which shields buyers of “issue ads” from having to reveal their identities, hurts the elective process.

“It is alarming to me that we have a process right now where millions of dollars of ads can be run and no one knows who is running them,” Sebelius said in an interview in preparation for the 2006 legislative session, which starts Monday.

“Nobody knows, and you can’t evaluate the 30-second message effectively without knowing why they are there and what the goal is,” she said.

Carol Williams, executive director of the Kansas Governmental Ethics Commission, agreed lawmakers should tackle the issue this year because if they don’t, numerous organizations with unknown agendas will be campaigning in Kansas during the August primaries and November general election.

“With as many calls as I’ve taken in past six months from organizations that want to be involved in issue advocacy … if this isn’t put into play, legislators will look at each other after the election and say why didn’t we put this in place,” Williams predicted.

Pending in the Legislature is a measure requiring the disclosure of financing behind “issue ads,” where entities seek to influence the election but don’t specifically say to vote for or against a particular candidate.

Other reform measures before lawmakers would require timely disclosure of campaign contributions and expenditures, and disclosure of political advertising involving recorded phone messages.

Another measure would require that political action committees and party committees identify whom they aim to elect or defeat.

A bipartisan group of 25 House members has said it would lead the charge to pass the proposals.