U.S. Rep. Kenny Hulshof, a Republican candidate for governor, came out today with what a spokesman called his first bloc of specific proposals.

That bloc focuses on ethics issues.

Key among them is a call to increase Missouri’s campaign-donation limits.  That stance is particularly interesting since less than two months ago, Hulshof said that — if governor — he’d sign a measure getting rid of the state’s current limits.

Spokesman Scott Baker said Friday that Hulshof’s new proposal doesn’t signal back-tracking. “He said that he would sign a bill eliminating the contribution limits,” Baker said. “But an even better solution is to have limits, but increase the size of them.”

Hulshof’s plan calls for increasing the limit to $2,500 per donor per candidate per election. He’d also get rid of the special class of limits — 10 times larger — that now apply to state parties and other party entities, such as legislative district committees.

The same limit would apply to everyone, Baker said.

Hulshof also wants a “millionaire exemption,” patterned after the federal rule, that allows candidates to accept donations larger than the limits if a rival puts in millions of dollars of their own money.

Hulshof also promises to set up some kind of task force that would recommend other ethics changes by July 2009. Such changes could include limits on how much individuals can give PACs and other campaign committees, Baker said.

Hulshof’s new campaign finance stance, unveiled in Springfield this morning and slated to be reaffirmed later today in Jefferson City, puts him more in line with his GOP rival, state Treasurer Sarah Steelman, and the likely Democratic nominee, Attorney General Jay Nixon, who both have declared their support for campaign donation limits.

Hulshof’s ethics package appears to go beyond what the other two have said, although Nixon has indicated numerous times that he supports limits on, or elimination of, the “pass-through” legislative committees. (All three have benefited by the pass-throughs, according to the latest campaign reports.)

Hulshof’s proposals also subtly put some distance between him and Gov. Matt Blunt, who signed the now-defunct 2007 law eliminating the state’s limits and in 2005  privatized the state’s license-fee office system.

 Hulshof has made a point of not publicly criticizing any actions by Blunt, or his administration. 

In any event, state Democratic Party spokesman Jack Cardetti said today, in part:

“Less than two months after saying he would sign a bill repealing campaign contributions limits, Congressman Kenny Hulshof today flip-flopped his position and came out in favor of raising the limits. 

 ”Likewise, last month Hulshof said he would end the political patronage that surrounds the current fee office system, only to back track and promise that only operators ‘that don’t meet certain benchmarks’ would lose the right to run those offices.”

“…Kenny Hulshof has been in Washington so long he doesn’t know up from down or right from wrong when it comes to ethics…Taking both sides of an issue might make sense for Kenny Hulshof in Washington, but Missourians want real ethics reform, not political double talk.”

Cardetti then referred to the Youtube video of Hulshof’s previous comments.