Wisconsin Governor Rebuffs FOIA Requests

MADISON, Wisc. (CN) - Gov. Scott Walker has refused to produce 8,000 e-mails he claimed he received about his anti-union Budget Repair Bill, which Walker said were "largely supportive." So Isthmus Publishing Co. and The Associated Press sued Walker for them, in a FOIA complaint in Dane County Court.

Walker referred to the emails in a Feb. 17 press conference, and after stiff-arming requests for them, his spokesman Cullen Werwie told the AP reporter Todd Richmond that "he had forwarded the request to the legal department in the Office of the Governor and did not have any further information on the status of the request," according to the complaint.

Isthmus publishes a weekly newspaper and runs the website thedailypage.com.

One Wisconsin Now, a progressive, nonprofit advocacy group, also has requested the emails, it said in a statement. The group said that Walker's administration told Isthmus and the AP it would charge $31,000 to fulfill their request for the records.

A hearing on the Dane County complaint has been set for March 21.

Isthmus and the AP are represented by Christa Westerberg and Pamela McGillivray with McGillivray, Westerberg & Bender.

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