TRENTON — State Senate Democrats this week plan to introduce a major overhaul of the state's campaign finance laws that would force political candidates and advocacy groups to disclose the donors behind every penny they receive, The Star-Ledger has learned.

The legislation, expected to be introduced Thursday, would no longer allow candidates to hide donors who give $300 or less, an issue that has received renewed attention since the indictment of the engineering firm Birdsall Services Group.

The proposal would also force nonprofit political groups, which have anonymously poured millions of dollars into New Jersey elections in recent years, to open their books and tell the public who gives them their money and how they spend it.

All contributions and expenditures would be required to be disclosed within 48 hours.

"With transparency and immediate transparency, that could be a deterrent to anyone who wants to bend the rules and twist things," said Sen. James Beach (D-Camden), a bill sponsor. "This is something that’s been needed for a long time."

In exchange for more stringent disclosure requirements, the bill would increase the maximum the candidates can receive from one person or organization during an election cycle. The current maximum is $2,600; the new amount has not been determined, Beach said.

Senate President Stephen Sweeney (D-Gloucester) and Senate Majority Leader Loretta Weinberg (D-Bergen) said they both support the legislation, which coincides with this year’s legislative and gubernatorial races.

"I have two fervent beliefs: that government shouldn’t be for sale and that it should be open," said Weinberg, who added she will begin voluntarily disclosing all of her donors.

"Whatever we can do to move both of those things along is good."

Assembly Speaker Sheila Oliver said in a statement that she would review any bill to reform the campaign finance system and reiterated her support for forcing nonprofit political advocacy groups to open their books.

"It’s long past time to make transparent these shadowy types of organizations that spend boatloads of money without accountability," Oliver (D-Essex) said.

A spokesman for Gov. Chris Christie, Michael Drewniak, declined to comment on the bill, but noted that Democrats have failed to act on a number of ethics reform proposals put forth by the governor, including one that would end the practice of "wheeling" contributions between political committees and campaigns to mask donors.

"The legislative Democrats have never been bright beacons of openness and disclosure, at least not for themselves," Drewniak said in a statement.

The problem of anonymous political donations has grown since the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 2010 that corporations, unions and other advocacy groups could independently spend an unlimited amount of money on elections.

In a little less than two years, a nonprofit group founded by Christie’s college friends, the Committee for Our Children’s Future, has spent more than $6 million on pro-Christie television commercials. A similar group, One New Jersey, advocates on behalf of Democrats and frequently criticizes the governor.

Neither group — known as 501(c)(4)s, after their federal tax code designation — must disclose its donors. Similar groups, known as 527s, must only make public their donors through the federal government.

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Under the proposed legislation, both types of organizations would be required to disclose contributions and expenditures to the state Election Law Enforcement Commission if they spend more than $2,100.

A similar bill was advanced by an Assembly committee last month. Christie has not taken a position on the bill (A3863).

"It’s not that we’re putting a stop to what people can contribute," said Sen. Linda Greenstein (D-Middlesex), who was anonymously attacked by a group in 2007 and is also sponsoring the legislation.

"We just want to know who they are."

This year, nonprofit advocacy groups are expected to spend as much as $25 million on New Jersey’s gubernatorial and legislative races, according to Jeffrey Brindle, the executive director of ELEC.

The legislation also targets anonymous small donors — who collectively account for millions of dollars to candidates — by forcing any campaign that raises or spends more than $3,000 on an election to disclose the names of every contributor.

Last month, one of the state’s most influential engineering firms, Birdsall Services Group, and seven former executives and shareholders were accused of funneling political contributions in checks of $299 through employees to elected officials.

But because state law allows campaigns to hide donors of $300 or less, the public has no way to know which officials received Birdsall money, and the state Attorney General’s Office has declined to say where the contributions went.

A Star-Ledger analysis earlier this month found politicians in New Jersey can receive more money while still keeping the names of donors secret than those in any other state in the nation, prompting calls for the $300 threshold to be lowered.

The analysis also found that in 2011, candidates for everything from fire commissioner to the Legislature were allowed to hide the donors behind more than $1 out of every $10 received, or about $12 million out of $100 million in contributions.

"The whole idea that we really don’t know who from that firm contributed these small donations to people is a problem," Greenstein said. "I think it’s about time for people to want to be open."

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