CHEYENNE - Raising campaign contribution limits would allow candidates to depend on a limited number of wealthy contributors and would discourage them from seeking broad-based financial support, Gov. Dave Freudenthal said Monday in vetoing a bill to increase the dollar restrictions.

House Bill 9 was the last bill adopted during the Legislature's 2008 budget session that remained on the governor's desk.

The original purpose of the bill, sponsored by the Joint Interim Corporations, Elections and Political Subdivisions Committee, was to close a loophole in the law. The loophole allowed a single donor in Casper to form a political action committee and contribute more than $11,000 to a Natrona County Commission candidate.

Freudenthal said the bill was expanded way beyond the original purpose.

The proposal raised contribution limits from $1,000 to $3,500 and eliminated the $25,000 limit on political contributions.

"This trend would not be healthy for our beloved state," the governor said in his veto message. "Be it my old libertarian or populist bones, I simply cannot encourage more money from fewer people in the political process."

Rep. Pete Illoway, R-Cheyenne, the chairman of the House Committee on Corporations, Elections and Political Subdivisions, said Monday he wasn't surprised the bill drew a veto.

When the committee members began working on the bill to close the loophole, they decided the current contribution limits were too low, so they used an inflation factor to arrive the new higher limits.

"The group that brought the request to us didn't like where those limits ended up. It is my belief that they lobbied to have the bill vetoed," Illoway said.

"Since they didn't like one part of the bill, now they don't get anything," he added.

He said the committee has no plans to look at the bill again during the legislative interim.

"When you tinker on one side, you may get bit on the other side," Illoway said.

Although Illoway wouldn't identify the group that requested the bill, it was the Equality State Policy Center.

Dan Neal, executive director of the group, said Monday the organization did not ask the governor to veto the campaign finance reporting bill, although leaders thought about it.

He noted that the governor signed House Bill 3 to authorize electronic campaign filing, which the council supported.

"We thought about asking the governor, and then we decided that we would just stand back and see what he does, because he makes some really good decisions," Neal said. "And that's what he did in this case."

His group, he said, felt the limits were raised too high.

"For us, it's easier to live with the loophole," he said.

The Equality State Policy Center is a government watchdog group that represents labor unions, the Wyoming Outdoor Council, the Wyoming Education Association, the Wyoming Association of Churches, the Wyoming Wildlife Association and the Wyoming Trial Lawyers Association.

Freudenthal said later Monday afternoon that neither Neal's organization nor any other group asked him to veto the campaign finance reporting bill.

He said he disapproved of the bill because the higher spending limits would have meant any race could be financed by two people or a man and wife.

Although raising money is unpleasant, he said, it is better for candidates to go door to door or to attend fundraising events to get money for their campaigns.

If the limits were raised, he said, it could do away with "backyard barbecues where someone passes the hat."

Freudenthal said the Equality State Policy Center did ask him to veto a proposed constitutional amendment to change the signature-collecting requirements for ballot initiatives, which opponents say will make the effort even more difficult.

The governor said he decided to let the voters decide. The proposal will be on the November general election ballot.

It requires sponsors of a ballot question to collect the required number of signatures of elected voters from two-thirds of the 30 Senate districts, rather than two-thirds of the state's 23 counties.

Contact Joan Barron at joan.barron@trib.com or by phone at 307-632-1244.