DES MOINES -- Looking ahead to November's general election, House lawmakers Monday advanced two measures to crack down on dirty campaign tactics they say have permeated elections for years.

"What we're attempting to do is put some more honesty and ethics back in campaigns," said Rep. Pam Jochum, D-Dubuque.

The first bill would mandate disclosure for organizers or individuals who conduct push polling.

Push polling attempts to influence respondents' by planting a message for or against a candidate under the guise of gathering individuals' opinions.

The proposal that advanced out of a House subcommittee Wednesday would make the group using such a "poll" label the phone call as a paid advertisement. If the call is backed by a candidate, that would need to be disclosed.

Groups and individuals who conduct push polling also would be required to register with the state.

Violators could be charged with a serious misdemeanor.

Over the last decade, campaigns have employed this "very unethical, deceptive" campaign strategy with increasing frequency, Jochum said.

Jochum said she received two push polling calls in the run-up to January's caucuses.

During one, the interviewer "immediately went into attack mode on Obama's … health insurance policy," after Jochum said she supported him.

Jochum said she asked the interviewer who was paying for the call, but the interviewer wouldn't respond. Her caller ID registered a string of zeroes for the call, leaving her incapable of tracing the message's source.

"This was going on and there was nothing we could do to at least prevent it, or at least hold people accountable," Jochum said.

The second bill, approved by the same subcommittee Wednesday, would forbid candidates and political parties from knowingly making false statements or not checking the accuracy of such statements.

If made law, opponents and political parties would be prohibited from lying about a candidate's voting record, public service history, endorsements and criminal history.

The formal prohibition on lying would only apply to these issues because they can be verified, said Rep. Beth Wessel-Kroeschell, D-Ames.

"These are items that are provable," Wessel-Kroeschell said.

As with the push polling bill, Jochum said, there's a definite need for this legislation.

"I've seen over the years (candidates) get accused of not paying their property taxes, when indeed they did," Jochum said. "They paid them, and you can prove it."

Both measures need the approval of lawmakers in both chambers and Gov. Chet Culver to become law.

Lawmakers have tried unsuccessfully for several years to create similar bans. Those measures failed, in part, because of concerns about trampling individuals' freedom of speech.

Some states which have implemented similar measures have seen them swatted down in court.

An official with the American Civil Liberties Union of Iowa opposes the bill on free speech grounds and questioned how the state would enforce the ban.

"Anytime you put a plug on political speech, you've got a problem," said Marty Ryan with the Iowa ACLU.

Contact Whitney Woodward at (515) 243-0138 or whitney.woodward@lee.net.