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Do you seriously think that this was done by a GOP legislature without Walker's knowledge or even at his request? The fact that everybody refused to talk when asked is telling. If he had nothing to do with it, they would have just said so.

Scott Walker And Wisconsin GOP Abandon Plan To Gut Open Records Law

ByTierney SneedPublishedJuly 6, 2015, 10:46 AM EDT

Wisconsin Republicans led by Gov. Scott Walker (R) swiftly reversed course over the holiday weekend and dropped a proposal that would have gutted Wisconsin's open records law.

Tucked into a larger budget motion, the proposal, as reported by The Capital Times on Friday, would have removed a number of legislative materials and communications from the law's auspices and would have allowed lawmakers to refuse to disclose certain documents.

As the backlash began to mount, Walker announced over the weekend that he and state lawmakers had agreed to remove the provisions changing state open record laws.

"We are steadfastly committed to open and accountable government," Walker said in a statement Saturday that was cosigned by state GOP legislative leaders. "The intended policy goal of these changes was to provide a reasonable solution to protect constituents' privacy and to encourage a deliberative process between elected officials and their staff in developing policy. It was never intended to inhibit transparent government in any way."

The changes would have affected the types of documents tracking a bill's legislative history that have been particularly useful for journalists and activists in the state. Conservatives and liberals alike decried the move as an effort to make Wisconsin less transparent and more vulnerable to corruption.

State Republicans have refused to disclose who inserted the language into the budget legislation, which was approved late Thursday evening. Before dropping the provisions entirely, the governor's office said Friday it was considering changes to the proposals concerning public records law, but would not comment as to whether Walker was involved in the proposals in the first place.

The controversy comes just days before Walker is expected to announce his candidacy for the 2016 GOP presidential nomination.

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Not sure if you are following closely this budget process in Wisconsin. There are a lot of disagreements between the legislators and Walker. It is interesting. In some ways they are going further than he asked, and in other ways they are pulling back what he asked for. I would not assume that things in the budget were all approved by Walker.

Secondly, if you actually look at what they were proposing, it isn't an evil thing. They were trying to all redacting of citizens names from correspondence and the inclusion of drafting ideas. The current law requires things like notes written on a napkin when brainstorming ideas be included in open records requests. The reason it got a backlash was the lefty media (and their willing accomplices, you included) misrepresenting what it was.

If Walker and the republican legislators follow their normal pattern they will spend the next six months selling why it is a good idea to the public and then passing it will little real opposition (well, it will be rabidly opposed by the libs, of course).