Top Republican officials proposed legislation yesterday to close two major loopholes in Ohio's campaign-finance law, but chances are slim that the plan will be enacted by the GOP-controlled legislature this year.

Ohio Senate President Richard H. Finan said he's in no hurry to adopt the plan, which would require full disclosure of contributions and expenditures involving operating funds and independent committees that indirectly try to influence elections without supporting or opposing a candidate.

The Cincinnati Republican saidthe legislature plans to go on summer vacation this week. Other sources said nothing will happen to the bill until after the November election, if then.

Gov. Bob Taft and Secretary of State J. Kenneth Blackwell called for the changes at a joint news conference .

"Full disclosure is needed to allow voters to scrutinize the funding sources of candidates and issue-advocacy campaigns,'' Taft said.

"This bill gives Ohioans knowledge of campaign-finance activity that has heretofore been in the dark in this state,'' said Blackwell, who oversees Ohio's elections and campaign-finance reports.

Although Republicans wrote the current campaign-finance law when they gained control of the legislature in 1995, they have been resistant to require reporting of the funding sources of independent issue-advocacy groups and of state and county political-party operating funds.

Ohio GOP Chairman Robert T. Bennett said he would support disclosure of the sources of his party's operating fund as long as the law applies to special-interest political- action groups, such as organized labor and trial lawyers.

State Sen. Jeff Jacobson, the Montgomery County GOP chairman, seemed to agree.

"We have unions and other organizations who don't disclose their operating funds who are arguably more active in campaigns than they appear,'' he said.

The Taft-Blackwell proposal also would put issue advocacy under the definition of "electioneering communications'' and make the expenditures and contributions reportable. The independent groups have argued that their activity falls under free speech.

"I think it's going to be very difficult for anyone to come up with a bill that's constitutional unless they make disclosure voluntary,'' said Charles T. McConville, director of political and candidate education for the Ohio Chamber of Commerce.

Democrats in the legislature ridiculed the tardiness of the Taft-Blackwell proposal, saying Sen. Dan Brady, D-Cleveland, and Rep. Joseph Sulzer, D-Chillicothe, have similar bills already introduced that are not advancing.

"This is pure political spin,'' Brady said. "If they really wanted to pass this legislation they could do it.''

"If the governor had joined the reform effort months ago, we might have a new campaign-finance law on the books right now,'' said House Minority Leader Dean E. DePiero, D- Parma.

Kent Darr of the Ohio AFL-CIO said his organization had not yet seen the Taft-Blackwell plan but added, "We're for anything that requires full disclosure.''

Finan expressed concern that the Taft-Blackwell proposal would be a magnet for "wholesale changes in the campaign-finance law'' and the subject of wide-open debate.

His fears were confirmed by Bennett, who said he wants any bill to require county-level candidates and officeholders to be subject to the $2,500 limit on individual contributions. Bennett also wants to prohibit county officials from soliciting donations from their employees.

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