SPRINGFIELD - For lawmakers and observers who want to change state laws that govern campaign giving and spending, 2007 could provide their best hope for change in the next several years.

Gov. Rod Blagojevich pitched a campaign finance reform plan in 2005 that stalled. His office says he's going to push it again this year. Others pressed their own versions before that, but nothing happened.

Upcoming elections had loomed over reform talks in the past two years, making it difficult for lawmakers to change the rules late in the game.

In 2008, lawmakers will be campaigning again. After that, the 2010 governor's race will already be a hot topic.

But now, after another year of heavy spending bought nasty television ads and bitter mailers, campaign finance reform hopefuls say 2007 could be their year.

Most agree leadership on the issue will have to come from the top if anything is to happen.

"A lot of this is going to depend on the governor and how much energy he wants to put into it," said state Sen. Dan Rutherford, R-Chenoa.

In the last two years, Blagojevich has seen a top fundraiser indicted and media reports have out-lined federal investigations into the governor's hiring practices.

Ethics played a big part in the November election. As Judy Baar Topinka blasted Blagojevich about the investigations, his campaign worked to link her to former Gov. George Ryan, who had recently been convicted in his corruption trial.

But as the heat on Blagojevich began to intensify in early 2005, he unveiled campaign finance re-forms that largely mimicked the federal system. Among other things, it put limits on how much individuals, party organizations and political action committees can give candidates.

Under the plan, an individual donor would have been limited to giving a candidate $2,000 in the last election. Individual giving to all candidates, parties and committees would be capped at $40,000 per election.

State law now lets individuals give as much money as they want to as many candidates as they want.

That was illustrated in 10 key legislative matches this year. Legislative leaders funneled $8 million into targeted races in an attempt to win or bolster majorities in the House and Senate.

Blagojevich offered his proposal late in the 2005 legislative session after vowing to "rock the system in Springfield." But with little time to debate it, the plan went nowhere.

Blagojevich spokeswoman Abby Ottenhoff said he'll try again this year.

"He thinks that that's the right approach," she said.

But it's not just federal-style limits that have been proposed.

Others want to end the potential conflict of interest that comes from campaign donors being awarded millions in state contracts a practice known as "pay to play." The issue hounded both Blagojevich and Topinka in the last campaign.

"It certainly has been highlighted as a potential problem," said Kent Redfield, a University of Illi-nois at Springfield political scientist.

Previously, legislation to prevent such situations has stalled. But some state executives stopped taking some money from contractors anyway.

Comptroller Dan Hynes, for example, won't take campaign money from contractors who do more than $25,000 in business with the state or $10,000 with his office specifically. And all contractors trying to get state work with him have to disclose their history of campaign donations. Topinka, Attorney General Lisa Madigan and Secretary of State Jesse White made similar moves.

Blagojevich didn't, but his spokeswoman says he'll keep pushing his own plan to "rock the sys-tem."

"The governor's plan is to have a comprehensive set of rules that apply to both legislators and executives," Ottenhoff said.

What's unclear, though, is how hard lawmakers want to be rocked.

State Democrats have been especially successful lately under the Illinois system. They hold all the statewide executive offices and healthy majorities in both chambers of the General Assembly.

With that control, they have the power to either change the system under which they've suc-ceeded, or leave things alone.

Steve Brown, spokesman for House Speaker Mike Madigan, D-Chicago, says that while some proposals might sound good, many of them won't actually fix anything.

"Does that correct some real or perceived flaw?" he said. "Typically, the answer to that is 'no."'

He said a plan to ban campaign donors from winning lucrative state contracts wrongly assumes the two always are related. He says honest contractors shouldn't have their political rights stripped because of a few dishonest ones.

Redfield, on the other hand, says such a ban is more likely to get lawmaker approval than Blagojevich's federal-style limits. He says limits would be a more radical change and therefore are less likely to happen.

Whether any reforms win favor with lawmakers this year will remain an open question for months, but Brown says multiple proposals are usually available for debate.

"I'm sure that'll happen again this year," he said.

While it's unclear if lawmakers will change anything this year, it also could be uncertain if any of the changes will solve any perceived problems.

Federal campaign finance changes show that even with reforms, candidates have found ways to fund television commercials, radio spots, mailbox-stuffing fliers and huge numbers of yard signs. Doing so may just become trickier.

"There's always going to be a way to come up with money," Rutherford said.