Isthmus, Wisconsin Associated Press sue Gov. Scott Walker over access to emails

[Pharaoh]

Isthmus newspaper and the Wisconsin Associated Press today filed a lawsuit against Gov. Scott Walker over his office's failure to respond to open records requests regarding emails received by his office.

"The governor said he had gotten more than 8,000 emails as of Feb. 17, with 'the majority' urging him to 'stay firm' on his budget repair bill," says Isthmus News Editor Bill Lueders. "We're just trying to see these largely supportive responses."

The lawsuit, filed this afternoon in Dane County court, names as defendants Gov. Walker and the office of the governor.

Isthmus made its request by hand-delivered letter on Feb. 18, a day after Walker referred to these 8,000 emails and about an hour before he held another press conference saying the number had since swelled to 19,000, again mostly positive. The paper followed this with two communications with Walker spokesperson Cullen Werwie (the second of which, on Feb. 24, was also sent to Brian Hagedorn, the governor's legal counsel). Both asked for an update on the status of the original request.

The Associated Press, through reporter Todd Richmond, emailed its request for the referenced 8,000 emails on Feb. 18. Richmond followed this on Feb. 25 with an email to Werwie and Hagedorn inquiring as to the status of his request and asking that it be expanded to include "all emails the governor has received that mention the budget repair bill."

As of today, the governor's office and his legal counsel have not responded to these requests for records, or provided information on their status.

http://www.thedailypage.com/daily/article.php?article=32638 :party:

[SpiralHawk]

1. I'll bet a huge sack of chocolate doughnuts that...

The Republicon governor lied lied lied and want to keep the emaisl OCCULT because they prove he is a bona-fide republicon liar-liar-liar.

[calimary]

2. If this were for real, don't you think muammar walker would have released a lot of these

"stand strong" testimonials?

[gratuitous]

3. It's always evidence with you people, isn't it?

Can't you just take Gov. Walker's disingenuously self-serving word for anything? He hasn't produced copies of those e-mails because, uh, somebody's been hogging the copier! Yeah, that's it.

[Critters2]

6. Now he and his staff will be up all night writing e-mails.

A lying, cheating governor's work is never done.

[snagglepuss]

8. Exactly but I wonder how they'll try try to slither out of this?

[Critters2]

4. Holy crap! It never ends with this guy!

He wouldn't know the truth if it bit him in the ass. And I think it's going to.

[Me.]

5. Pandora's Box

He should've known better but then...he's a republican

[tblue37]

9. It's most often R's, but sometimes others--both in politics and out of it.

People at a certain level of privilege and with a certain sense of entitlement, especially if they are not terribly young, seem to forget that everything is on record, tracked, and archived in one way or another these days. It just isn't that easy to make a claim puffing yourself up without having someone actually check the record, and with the intertubes being what they are, there are always millions of someones on the other side of the ideological divide just waiting for the chance to comb through reords, audio recordings, and videos.

[Hannah Bell]

7. attack him on every front. hope he's sweating.

[Snoutport]

10. This is beautiful

and makes me really happy!

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

11. The thin ice is melting under Walker