The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel is not a fan of Assembly Speaker Robin Vos (R–Rochester) because of something we journalists hold dear:

Assembly Speaker Robin Vos (R-Rochester) has shown that he will make every effort to gut the state’s open records law, no matter what the citizens of Wisconsin think, which raises the question of whether he is fit to represent the public’s interests in the state Legislature.

His utter disdain for transparency in conducting the public’s business should encourage civic-minded citizens in southern Racine County who believe in open, honest government to seriously consider replacing him. We hope Vos will face strong challengers in next year’s elections, starting with the Republican primary in August.

The first sneak attempt in early July by Vos and other GOP leaders to severely limit access to public records drew a wave of protest from an outraged public, and rightfully so. Not only was the intent of the measure shameful, so was the process. Although the records trail now reveals a lawyer in the Legislative Reference Bureau began researching special legislative privileges a full year ago, no one outside of a tight group of party leaders had a hint of what they were planning to do to the open records law until they inserted an item into the state budget, at the last minute, on the night before a holiday weekend with no public airing or discussion.

That was no mistake: It was a calculated tactic by Vos and friends to head off any such discussion and race the changes into the budget bill at a time when, they thought, no one would be paying attention. Thanks to watchful newspapers and conscientious citizens, it didn’t work.

But Vos didn’t learn from what Gov. Scott Walker has since admitted was “a huge mistake.”

Almost immediately, Vos started working on another backdoor approach to shut out the public. As the Journal Sentinel reported last week, public records obtained by the Center on Media and Democracy “showed that an aide to Vos requested a new legislative draft on July 23, seeking a bill to give the Legislature and individual lawmakers a different status on open records from other government bodies and officials in Wisconsin.”

In response to the report, Vos immediately issued a news release claiming he would not advance the changes his office drafted.“It does not change anything as to where our current position is,” Vos said. “We’re not changing the open records law.”

Not now, anyway.

In the release, Vos carefully said he no longer intended to change the law “this session.” So after things cool down a bit, and citizens are distracted by other issues, such as next year’s elections, he’ll try again.

Vos’ first proposal, beat back by an angry public on Independence Day, would have granted lawmakers broad new privileges to hide legislative documents, even when sued, and to ban their staffs from discussing issues even after leaving their jobs. No other state provides such an expansive legal privilege. The new rules allowing massive secrecy would have applied to the governor, the Legislature, town, village, city and county boards; to state and local agencies and department heads; to anyone in government worried there just might be something in the files that could embarrass a public official or raise an objection from concerned citizens.

Under the latest Vos proposal, lawmakers could make their own emails, memos and other documents subject to legislative rules, rather than the open records law. They could write and rewrite their own rules about what records would be publicly available, at any time, with no input from citizens or even the governor. What a deal for lawmakers in power with something to hide.

Vos’ goal, the release said, “was to protect the private and sensitive information of constituents who share their information with legislative offices without realizing it is a public record and could be revealed to the world.”

In other words, he wanted to hide records from you in order to protect you.

Nonsense.

This brazen, cynical move had nothing to do with protecting constituents and everything to do with protecting ambitious career politicians — and the lobbyists, donors and special interests they make deals with behind the scenes.

Vos is very good at protecting himself and his position of power. Legislative districts that leaned Republican were redrawn to become staunchly Republican under the partisan redistricting after the 2010 census.

Hiding who is lurking behind the curtains of the Great and Powerful Vos was a horrible idea when it was beaten back in July. It’s a frightening idea now — that an elected leader, the speaker of the statehouse, believes he can turn a deaf ear to public outcry and find another way to bury his secrets.

It’s time, once again, for citizens across Wisconsin to let their public officials know they won’t stand for anything less than transparent, honest government.

James Wigderson replies:

The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel has declared war on Assembly Speaker Robin Vos. The newspaper reported that Vos asked the Legislative Reference Bureau to look again at drafting legislation to gut the open records law. They followed it with an editorial that called for Republicans to dump Vos as Speaker and for Racine County to elect a new state representative. …

They even ran a paragraph explaining how someone can run for state assembly, which is pretty amazing considering nomination papers can’t be circulated until next June. Start planning now and the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel will give you all the support you need.

The “Great and Powerful Vos,” as the newspaper childishly describes him, is also guilty of legislative redistricting after the 2010 election. I know, the horror, the horror. But don’t try to find the editorials demanding former Assembly Speaker Mike Sheridan’s defeat in the 2010 election because he didn’t support redistricting changes, or even because he changed his position on a bill regarding the pay day loan industry while he was dating their lobbyist. Like the Zombies sang in 1965, she’s not there. Maybe it’s because Sheridan was a Democrat.

No, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel’s wrath is reserved for Republicans like Vos. It’s amazing they don’t demand his recall while they’re at it. Or even a John Doe investigation, as long as they’re making allusions to Oz and pulling back curtains.

Maybe I shouldn’t give them ideas. Or maybe I should just refer their editorial to Milwaukee District Attorney John Chisholm and the Government Accountability Board.

After all, Journal Sentinel Incorporated of Journal Media Group is going well beyond any conservative groups’ issue advertising. The corporation is using its resources to expressly advocate for the defeat of an elected official. They are actually expressly advocating that someone, anyone defeat Vos in the next election.

I’m betting the corporate in-kind contribution to the Democratic Party is unreported. And since express advocacy election spending by corporations is still illegal in Wisconsin, Editor George Stanley and Editorial Editor David Haynes are in really big trouble.

I’m looking forward to the dawn raids on the editors’ homes. With any luck some anonymous tipster will let conservatives know when the raids are taking place. We’ll bring coffee and doughnuts. For ourselves, since I doubt we’ll be able to sneak past the battering ram.

But before the newspaper goes on a holy crusade to rid the legislature of Vos, perhaps they should remember that it was conservative organizations like the MacIver Institute and conservative alternative media that pushed Republicans to back down from the proposed open records changes over the Independence Day weekend. They were somehow spared a mention in the newspaper’s editorial.

As a fan of Wigderson’s, I think his opinion is not entirely persuasive. As a fan of open government and an opponent of the stupidest moment in the history of the state Republican Party, I think the Journal Sentinel’s editorial misses the mark too; it is more a personal attack on Vos (for instance, the irrelevant slam about redistricting) than an argument for open government.

I suspect Wigderson would be just fine with the Journal Sentinel opining for the removal of, say, U.S. Rep. Gwen Moore (D–Milwaukee) or Sen. Lena Taylor (D–Milwaukee) from office. Newspapers have editorialized for and against candidates for centuries. (For instance, U.S. Sen. Joseph McCarthy.) If you can’t stand the heat, politicians, leave office. (Although Vos is unlikely to leave office before he wants despite the Journal Sentinel’s editorial wishes because Vos’ district is extremely Republican.) You would never find a district attorney of any party willing to try to prosecute Journal Media Group for exercising its First Amendment rights, and Wigderson knows that.

Wigderson also knows, and Vos and anyone who supported his hairbrained idea should know by now, that if you want to get anyone in the media angry at you, including people who support you on other issues, make an attempt to gut or evade the Wisconsin Open Meetings Law or Open Records Law or the federal Freedom of Information Act. (Notice the media being less fawning about Hillary Clinton these days?)

The biggest thing the Journal Sentinel ignored is that open government benefits everyone, including Republicans and conservatives. How, for instance, do we know who signed petitions for the recall of Gov. Scott Walker and legislative Republicans among government employees (including attorneys in the Milwaukee County DA’s office) and the media? (Including, to what should be Gannett’s embarrassment, reporters for The Post~Crescent in Appleton and Wausau Daily Herald who now cover Walker.) Because petitions for office and referendum are open records. The editorial also ignores the genesis of this stupid idea, emails from state employees to Sen. Jon Erpenbach (D–Middleton) that Erpenbach tried and failed to be able to hide, and that Vos’ idiotic idea is supported by legislative Democrats and Republicans.

As I’ve said here before, but the Journal Sentinel didn’t: The First Amendment, and the state Open Meetings and Open Records laws benefit everyone. Not just the news media.