Wisconsin GOP's vow of omerta on redistricting busted wide open - Daily Kos
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2012/02/08/1062726/-Daily-Kos-Elections-Morning-Digest-Wisconsin-GOP-s-vow-of-omerta-on-redistricting-busted-wide-open?via=blog_1
As legislative leaders secretly developed new election maps last year to strengthen their majority, Republican lawmakers were told to ignore public comments and instead focus on what was said in private strategy sessions, according to a GOP memo that became public Monday. Other newly released documents also show almost all Republican lawmakers signed legal agreements promising not to discuss the new maps while they were being developed. [...]
"Public comments on this map may be different than what you hear in this room. Ignore the public comments," the talking points also say.
There is just a ton of stuff at the link, and I really encourage you to read the article in full. But here's one little excerpt that's particularly worth sharing: Senate President Mike Ellis (R-Neenah) said Monday he had never before been asked to sign a confidentiality agreement during his four decades in office. He said he visited Michael Best's office to review his map last year but those at the office would not permit his aide to see it. He said the meeting lasted about five minutes.
The reporters don't quite explain why the GOP's attorneys would insist on this, but I can. The lawyers were trying to limit who had access to which documents in order to better preserve a claim of privilege or confidentiality—the more people who see something, the harder it is to argue it's secret. On top of that, they made lawmakers come into Michael Best's offices (funny enough, I've been there myself—they're literally adjacent to the capitol, so it's not exactly that big of a pain) because they didn't want to send any documents by email or hardcopy. That is, they wanted to minimize the number of documents that could become discoverable in litigation (i.e., materials that you're obligated to share with the other side). The smaller the paper trail, the better—in their view.
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