A Good Question...

The State Republican Party asks: What is Governor James E. Doyle Hiding?

Response time to RPW Open Records Request Reaches 62 days

(Madison, WI)...The Republican Party of Wisconsin is still waiting for Governor Doyle's Department of Administration to fulfill an open records request by The Republican Party of Wisconsin that was sent exactly two months ago.

The request, submitted in light of a growing number of indications of pay-to-play tactics in the Doyle Administration, asked for a record of all contracts the state has entered, including the names of businesses that received the contracts, the dollar amount of the contracts, and the date of the contracts, since Governor Doyle took office. The RPW received a response from the DOA on November 9, 2005, acknowledging receipt of the request and a statement that the DOA was working on the request and would respond shortly.

The RPW has not received a single document from the DOA, despite calling every week to check on the status of the request.

"The delayed response from Doyle's DOA begs the question, 'what is the Governor hiding?'" asked Rick Graber, chairman of The Republican Party of Wisconsin. "We hope the Governor will turn over a new leaf this year by coming clean on the contracts the state has entered under his watch. Voters have a right to know how their taxpayer dollars are being spent, considering the questionable circumstances that have come to light into the conduct of state business under Doyle."

Open Records requests can be a pain process and fulfill, especially ones as broad as this. But the longer the delay, the worse it looks for Diamond Jim.