Wisconsin’s Democratic Party filed an open records request Friday, further complicating the ongoing lawsuit between state entities that will determine voter checks for the upcoming election.
The request comes on the heels of the Department of Justice admitting Thursday to conferring with the Republican Party in late August, about two weeks before state Attorney General J.B. Van Hollen filed his lawsuit against the Government Accountability Board.
The lawsuit is based on the board’s decision not to check voter registration between Jan. 1, 2006 and Aug. 6, 2008 as required by the Help America Vote Act of 2006 — a difficult task with the November elections only six weeks away.
Thursday morning, the Department of Justice and Government Accountability Board began the first court date of the lawsuit, after which Kevin St. John, spokesperson for Van Hollen, said, “The attorney general does not use any consultation with any political party of interest group to determine whether or not an action is appropriate.”
Later that day, information was released drawing allegations that there may have been some consultation after all.
“The same day in which Van Hollen denied any contacts with Republicans regarding lawsuit, Republican Party of Wisconsin’s attorney Chris Mohrman said there may have been multiple contacts to multiple people,” said Alec Loftus, press secretary for the Democratic Party of Wisconsin.
St. John confirmed Mohrman spoke with GOP officials but said Van Hollen did not participate in any of the conversations and that the discussions were initiated by state party officials, not the Department of Justice.
Regardless, the Democratic Party of Wisconsin is still trying to straighten out the issue through its open records request. Under Wisconsin statute and the state open records law, anyone may file a request, and the government party is obligated to comply under law.
“The attorney general has painted himself as a champion of the open records,” Loftus said. “[This month] he kicked off open records tour in Green Bay, and the entire tour is about getting people to understand and comply with open records. If he can walk the walk, then he must release the records immediately.”
With the request, Van Hollen is obligated to release all records relating to the ongoing lawsuit, including e-mails, letters and phone records between him and any Republican organizations including the Republican Party of Wisconsin and Republican presidential candidate John McCain’s campaign.
“What we want to know is, who are these people and why they refused to give names,” Loftus said, referring the lawyers to whom Mohrman spoke. “Are those people someone they are trying to protect? Are they close to J.B. Van Hollen?”
William Cosh, spokesperson for Van Hollen, refused any comment except to say, “We’ll respond to their requests as soon as practicable and without delay,” a direct quote from Wisconsin State Statutes, which defines the timeline in which the party must disclose information when an open records request is filed.
