"The legislative process has been tainted by suggestions that access and even legislation can be bought," Dank said. "A central provision of this bill would ban contributions during the legislative session while bills are actually being considered."

Dank's proposal follows an investigation of possible Republican campaign finance violations by the Oklahoma Ethics Commission. According to the a state GOP official, the ethics commission is looking into how donations made to the state organization wound up in a county fund.

"This is not about party," he said. "We simply have to divorce the contribution process from the lawmaking process, and the best way to do that is to ban contributions during session."

Sparks, said "a lot of what Dank is proposing" is already addressed in existing law.

"Instead of tinkering with the state's campaign finance law, lawmakers should work to make sure there is full and complete disclosure of all campaign contributions and their contributors," Sparks said. "The best process is full disclosure -- full disclosure is paramount. But our campaign laws keep changing every year and I believe that injects more uncertainty into what we're doing."

Additionally, Sparks said lawmakers and the ethics commission should "work together" to tell candidates how they should to improve their campaign reports.

"What I really think would be helpful is if the ethics commission would tell candidates where their filings need to be improved."

As an example, Sparks said that two years after he began raising money, he "was surprised to read" that listing 'self employed' was no longer an adequate designation.

"I'd done it for two years and never heard from ethics commission," he said. "I want to do things the right way. A little input would have helped."

Instead of changing rules every year he said, "working better with candidates in relation to their reports, instead of playing 'gotcha' after the fact, would help.

"Then, the ultimate process is served by disclosure. If Rep. Dank's mechanism will really improve things, then great. But if we're trading one system for another, just for the sake of saying we're improving things, well, that's not having any impact."

Dank's proposal will be reviewed when lawmakers reconvene the legislative session in February 2008.