This post originally appeared at https://wisconsindailystar.com/news/questions-linger-after-report-of-evers-secret-email/tcsquare/2023/11/29/

by Benjamin Yount

At least one Republican lawmaker wants to know if Wisconsin’s governor has any other secret email.

Lawmakers and reform groups in the state are asking questions after a report unveiled Gov. Tony Evers has a secret email account.

“Gov. Evers writes various state workers and cabinet secretaries using the account “warren.spahn@wisconsin.gov,” a state email account,” Wisconsin Right Now first reported.

Evers office, according to Wisconsin Right Now, is dismissing questions about the email and how often the governor uses it.

“The governor’s non-public official direct email address. Making this email address available would significantly hinder the governor’s ability to communicate and work efficiently. There is minimal harm to the public interest, given that there are numerous public means to communicate with the office of the governor,” the Department of Administration told WRN.

State Rep. Scott Krug, R-Nekoosa, took to social media Monday to question that explanation.

“Common?? How many more? Who??,” Krug asked.

Rick Esenberg, president and general counsel at the Wisconsin Institute for Law and Liberty, said Evers needs to answer those questions. And said he should start by releasing his warren.spahn emails.

“This is an obvious attempt to avoid public scrutiny and evade the state’s open records law. The governor should release every email from this ‘account’ to rectify this violation immediately,” Esenberg said. “His administration should then take an additional step to disclose any and all ‘secret’ email accounts and accounts using aliases by his senior staff, including those from members of his cabinet.”

Wisconsin Right Now says it asked for a copy of those emails but were denied.

“We sent an open records request in September 2023 asking for all communications to and from warren.spahn@wisconsin.gov from 2018 to September 2023. We sent the request to both the state Department of Administration and the governor’s office. The governor’s office simply denied the request, saying it was too broad,” WRN wrote. “‘Rather than deny your request, we interpret your request to be for records between the governor and the DOA Secretary’s Office from January 1, 2018, to December 31, 2021,’ DOA wrote, saying the request for emails from 2018 to present was too broad.”

Wisconsin Right Now says the state confirmed there are 17,000 emails in the governor’s warren.spahn account but released just a few of them.

Spahn is a Milwaukee Braves pitcher from the 1950s. Evers had admitted to being a big fan.

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Benjamin Yount is a contributor to The Center Square.
Photo “Governor Tony Evers” by Governor Tony Evers.

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