Nearly $11 million was spent in just 10 suburban races for statehouse seats last year, as Republicans and Democrats slammed each other in glossy mailers, incessant telephone calls and aggressive cable TV ads.

It was ugly.

A Democratic mailer went out against several Republicans featuring a coat hanger, implying they would bring a return to back-alley abortions.

A Republican mailer attacked a Democrat in Northwest Cook County over long-ago DUI arrests, illustrating the point with a photo of a graphic car crash.

More than $1 out of every $2 spent in those bitter campaigns came directly from state parties and powerful legislative leaders hoping to gain a leg up in the state legislature, an analysis by the Daily Herald and campaign finance watchdog The Sunshine Project shows.

Now that kind of spending has become a key sticking point in negotiations between reform groups and party leaders who have their hands on the campaign cash spigot.

Left hanging in the balance is an overall package of first-ever caps on campaign contributions from unions, businesses and individuals, along with stepped-up disclosure and enforcement. Such legislation is expected to move through the General Assembly by the end of the week.

"I would hate to have no (legislation)," says Kent Redfield, director of The Sunshine Project and a political science professor at the University of Illinois at Springfield. "That would be a tremendous loss in terms of the opportunity we have here."

The debate now has turned partisan, with Democratic House Speaker Michael Madigan - one of the most powerful politicians in Illinois - balking at efforts to cap how much legislative leaders like himself can funnel to candidates.

Republicans, long in the minority, have wed themselves to reform groups that have made such limits a prerequisite to win their support on an overall campaign finance measure.

Campaign finance reform legislation was vetoed by Democratic Gov. Pat Quinn this summer under pressure from the reform groups, working under the banner organization Change Illinois, which considered it too weak.

"Any proposal not fully endorsed by Change Illinois will not have my support," says House Republican Leader Tom Cross of Oswego, drawing a line in the sand on an issue that hits at the core of how politics is played in Illinois.

The division appears deep.

Of the 20 suburban House Republicans who responded to a survey by the Daily Herald, 13 said they will not vote for legislation if it lacks party limits. Only two said they might not withhold their support. Five declined to say directly either way, holding out to see a final measure.

On the other side of the aisle, just one out of eight suburban House Democrats said they would withhold support. Four said they will vote for legislation without party limits, and three declined to give a firm "yes" or "no."

The split is a bit less dramatic in the Senate where two of five suburban Senate Democrats said they will not vote for legislation that lacks party limits. Three of nine Republicans said the same.

Perhaps sensing the public pressure on ethics this year, the vast majority of lawmakers surveyed said they want party limits - even if it is not going to stop them from voting for legislation that lacks them. Of the 41 suburban lawmakers polled in total, 36 said they back the limits.

Some interviewed were clearly torn over limiting any campaign contributions, but they say they will vote for such caps regardless. It's a balance between the reality that campaigns cost more and more, and the perception that defending the status quo makes one appear as an anti-reformer and beholden to the party will.

"I have very mixed emotions about it. I just wish it (campaigns) didn't cost so much," said state Rep. Rosemary Mulligan, a Des Plaines Republican who fended off a Democratic challenger last year in a $1 million race. "Of course you are pressed to vote for it, otherwise they will put out a mail piece that says, 'Rep. Mulligan voted against campaign finance reform.'"

Meanwhile, most suburban lawmakers still reeling from brutal races last year on both sides of the aisle say they want limits on party donations in hopes of taming the flames.

"How much money that gets thrown around in these races is crazy," said state Rep. Darlene Senger, a Naperville Republican and one of those subject to the wire-hanger abortion mailer last year. "But if someone goes out and starts spending money doing things that you know are trying to paint you in a negative light ... it is very hard to say, 'I'm not going to counter that.'"

Supporters of curbing party contributions say it will help ratchet down the largely unchallenged power of legislative leaders, who can gain control over legislators by pouring cash into their races to get them elected. In turn, lawmakers have voted to give the leaders near-complete control over everything from legislation to parking spots, staff and office space.

"The people who run the parties are the very same people who decide what (legislation) gets heard," said David Morrison, deputy director of the Illinois Campaign for Political Reform. "If you have a system that doesn't cover them, you are really codifying their power in a way that hasn't happened before."

Supporters like Morrison also argue leaving party and legislative leaders uncapped will let donors bypass contribution limits.

On the other hand, opponents say the parties should be able to help their candidates win elections.

"I really think that political parties have to be considered differently," says state Rep. Mark Walker, an Arlington Heights Democrat who won his seat last year with about 66 percent of his campaign spending coming from Madigan and his party. "On first blush, it seems to me that political parties should be able to support the candidates to the extent they want."

Walker says his support from Madigan hasn't made him beholden to the party.

At the same time, it remains uncertain exactly how such limits would dilute the power of party and legislative leaders.

Under U.S. Supreme Court interpretations of the Constitution, groups can't be barred from spending money supporting or opposing a candidate as long as the TV ads, mailers and other efforts are not done in coordination with a candidate's campaign.

Voters can see this play out in congressional and presidential races. While those candidates are limited to $2,400 donations from individuals and $5,000 donations from groups, political parties and special interests still spend millions of dollars on some races, flooding the airwaves with TV ads and stuffing mailboxes with mailers without telling the candidates.

Morrison says he realizes that is a possibility. He says it has been used by Democratic leaders as an argument against such caps in negotiations.

Yet, he believes caps on coordinated spending by parties in Illinois will erect at least some kind of a wall between candidates and the parties. It will also ensure a donor couldn't just funnel cash to a candidate through the party to exceed the currently agreed-upon $5,000 cap for individuals and $10,000 limit for groups.

"We want the most meaningful reform that is going to stand the test of time," he says.

Still, there is a clear risk to reform groups picking this particular issue to take a stand when it comes to campaign finance reform. Some fear a lack of support from reform groups for the legislation will give cover for lawmakers to vote it down and never pass such limits.

Until the arrest of Gov. Rod Blagojevich on corruption charges, few politicians publicly supported strict limits on how much money they can take and who they can take it from to run their campaigns.

Cross and Senate President John Cullerton, a Chicago Democrat, told the Daily Herald editorial board earlier this year that they were standoffish, at the very least, to such restrictions. Madigan, in control of the Illinois House for 24 of the last 26 years, has also never previously been a strong advocate for such limits.

Lawmakers are already on record voting for campaign finance reform this spring. But, under pressure from reform groups, that legislation was vetoed by Quinn. Cullerton and Madigan were at the news conference. Madigan refused to take questions.

Reform groups like the Illinois Campaign for Political Reform say they are keenly aware of the opportunity at hand and the risk of losing the chance at first-ever limits. It is a risk they are clearly willing to take.

"The talks are ongoing," Morrison said. "There is a strong interest on all sides to keep talking. As far apart as we are. Nobody wants to call it quits."

No: Caps on spending within parties proving to be sticking point