The Wisconsin Senate has an opportunity to vote today to close what reformers correctly describe as “the single largest loophole in Wisconsin’s loophole-ridden campaign finance laws.”

Senate Bill 43, a bipartisan measure, would require that special-interest groups disclose the identity of the corporate and individual donors who pay for the sleazy “issue advocacy” attack ads that have so corrupted Wisconsin politics in recent years.

Transparency and regulation may not be enough to get the ugliest of these ads -- many of which practice character assassination and trade in racial and ethnic stereotypes -- off the air. But at least Wisconsinites will know who is paying for the most toxic abuses of the political process. And that knowledge will make other campaign finance reform measures more meaningful and functional.

“(It) is absolutely necessary to counter the numerous cancerous and anonymous campaign communications that have undermined legislative, gubernatorial and other statewide elections and, more recently and alarmingly, Wisconsin state Supreme Court elections,” says Jay Heck, executive director of Common Cause in Wisconsin. “The recently enacted impartial justice law, which provides full public financing for qualified state Supreme Court candidates who agree to abide by spending limits totaling $400,000, will be effective only with Senate Bill 43 as law.”

Heck is, as usual, correct.

Senators should back this needed legislation. Then the Assembly should do the same and Gov. Jim Doyle should sign it.

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