(AP) – A newspaper editor claimed Friday that the state Assembly’s chief clerk challenged him to a fistfight after the pair argued during a meeting about Wisconsin’s open records law.
Bill Lueders, a veteran editor at the weekly alternative newspaper Isthmus and president of the Wisconsin Freedom of Information Council, sent a letter to Assembly Speaker Jeff Fitzgerald complaining about Chief Clerk Patrick Fuller. Lueders said he insulted Fuller during the argument, and Fuller responded by asking if Lueders wanted to “settle this right now,” which Lueders interpreted to mean a fistfight.
Fuller, who has been praised for his work by both Democrats and Republicans, did not immediately respond to voicemail and e-mail messages. Fitzgerald spokesman John Jagler acknowledged his office received Lueders’ letter but had no immediate comment.
“It strikes me as beyond the pale that the institution should tolerate the threats of physical violence made by Mr. Fuller,” Lueders wrote, arguing that Fuller showed signs of “mental instability” and should be fired.
Fuller, a Vietnam era and Desert Storm veteran, has served as chief clerk since 2003, under both Republican and Democratic leadership. Both parties have repeatedly said he’s done a good job, rehiring him and his staff at the beginning of each two-year session.
Former state Rep. Marlin Schneider, D-Wisconsin Rapids, a privacy advocate, worked with Fuller until he lost his re-election bid in November. He called Fuller an American hero.
“Anyone who knows anything about Patrick Fuller would want to be standing next to him in a real situation rather than Bill Lueders,” Schneider said.
Lueders didn’t immediately return a message left at his Isthmus office.
In his letter, Lueders claimed that he learned from an editor at another newspaper that Fuller and Senate Chief Clerk Rob Marchant planned to meet with state government reporters Thursday to discuss open record requests. Lueders is not part of the Capitol press corps, but said he showed up in his capacity as the WFIC president and an Isthmus editor.
He noticed Fuller and Marchant sitting at a table, but didn’t recognize them. Lueders said Fuller appeared to be agitated, looking at his watch and commenting he would leave if the meeting didn’t start on time. Fuller demanded to know why Lueders was at the meeting, then remarked Lueders must be new and introduced himself, but didn’t ask Lueders to identify himself, according to the letter.
A few minutes into the meeting, an argument erupted between Lueders and Fuller over language in the open records law.
“Mr. Fuller reacted angrily to being questioned on his interpretation of the law,” Lueders wrote. “I do not recall his exact words but he was extremely harsh and intemperate. I did, in response, state that I considered him an ‘ass.'”
Fuller then asked Lueders to go someplace and “settle this right now.” Lueders said he believed Fuller “was indicating a desire to get into a fistfight,” according to the letter.
“He did not deny it, and in fact restated his desire to settle things, apparently with fisticuffs,” Lueders wrote.
Lueders said Fuller and Marchant then got up to leave. He asked Fuller again if he still wanted to settle things, to which Fuller replied that if it came to that, Lueders would lose.
Marchant declined comment Friday.
