STILLWATER, Okla. — Rep. Frank Lucas, R-Okla., is doing the right thing by fully cooperating with a House Office of Congressional Ethics review of links between political contributions and votes on a massive overhaul of regulations governing Wall Street.

The ethics office launched the preliminary review after receiving a tip. It appears to focus on fundraising between Dec. 2 and Dec. 11 – the day the House passed its version of the bill. A similar bill passed the Senate in May, and is now before a House-Senate conference committee. Lucas is a member of that committee.

Six of the eight lawmakers under review are members of the House Financial Services Committee. The review is looking at the fundraising of five Republicans, including Lucas, and three Democrats.

The ethics office seeks information covering fundraising dating back to January 2009, but office spokesmen for the lawmakers told the Associated Press the request focused on December.

Lucas said he is confident no wrongdoing will be found.

An Associated Press review of Federal Election Commission records for December reveals each of the eight lawmakers received donations from political action committees for financial institutions or their lobbying trade groups in December.  However the institutions also gave to other Congressional candidates who weren’t listed in the ethics office letter to lobbyists.

It will be extremely difficult to find instances where contributions swayed votes on this issue. Republicans have long been against the Wall Street regulation overhaul. Nothing changed during the Dec. 11 House session where all Republicans voted against the bill.

A preliminary review determines if a full investigation is warranted. The ethics office can only recommend actions to the House Ethics Committee, which decides if lawmakers violated standards of conduct. In previous cases, the Ethics Committee has said a violaton can only occur if a lawmaker traded a vote in return for a contribution or favor.

Lucas is likely to be exonerated because his stance on the Wall Street regulation overhaul has never changed.

The bigger question is why the ethics office decided to launch a preliminary review if contributions or favors weren’t traded for votes.