Not only calling the disclosure guideline unnecessary and unfair, the group's chairman also questioned whether it is a change the Campaign Finance Board has the authority to make.

The Minnesota Campaign Finance and Public Disclosure Board has released a much anticipated set of rules that tells ballot initiative campaigns if they need to disclose the original sources of their financial donors.

Former state Rep. Cy Thao last was on the ballot in 2008. The four-term St. Paul DFLer opted not to run for re-election last year.

Since May, when state lawmakers passed a ballot question that will ask Minnesota voters next year whether marriage should be defined solely as a union between one man and one woman, Minnesota has found itself a key battleground in a campaign finance legal battle that is playing out across the United States.

The Minnesota Campaign Finance and Public Disclosure (CFPD) Board has decided that corporations must disclose their donors when giving money to ballot initiatives. The 2012 gay marriage amendment question has given the matter urgency.

The Minnesota Campaign Finance and Public Disclosure Board will meet tomorrow to consider dumping an advisory opinion from 1997 that excludes corporations from disclosing the sources of their donations when giving to ballot initiatives. The board's decision, on the eve of a possible government shutdown, is being watched by groups involved in the 2012 gay marriage ballot initiative.

Campaign finance litigation in other states is prompting Minnesota legislators to consider increasing the monetary threshold that triggers when independent expenditure and ballot initiative groups are required to register with the state.

Lobbyist Joseph T. O'Neil has been fined $200 for illegally contributing to then-state Rep. Tom Emmer's gubernatorial campaign during the 2010 legislative session. At issue is a $100 contribution that O'Neil made on April 27, shortly after Emmer secured the GOP endorsement.

Dayton said he will voluntarily quarterly file campaign finance reports this year, as the bill requires. The law currently requires lawmakers in non-election years to file campaign reports after year-end.

Dayton named a former state senator and former assistant U.S. attorney to four-year terms on the panel that decides state campaign finance complaints.