In a major success of state Sunshine Laws, the media was able to press for the release of emails that document just how government worked. Unfortunately, people in Missouri should be distressed on what they saw.
The St. Louis Post-Dispatch finally got a chance to review emails that Missouri Governor Matt Blunt's office claimed were deleted. The newspaper concluded that the governor's office has issued misleading statements on a host of issues during the past year. The report said Blunt's staffers falsely claimed the administration did not regularly conduct state business out of public view on campaign emaill accounts.
Even worse: "As chief of staff to Missouri Gov. Matt Blunt, Ed Martin turned the office into a political operation, using his position to galvanize special-interest groups on issues such as abortion and the judiciary," the Post-Dispatch said.
"Just-released emails from Missouri Gov. Matt Blunt and his underlings show they caused a stain on state government that cannot be ignored. Fortunately, Missourians now know how lucky we are that Blunt and his team will vacate the State Capitol in less than two months," editorialized the Kansas City Star.
We should all be thrilledthat the open government process worked -- although it took more than a year. The emails were delivered to The Associated Press, St. Louis Post-Dispatch and The Kansas City Starin a stack of 22 boxes Thursday evening. A team of 12 reporters spent two days examining each of an estimated 60,000 pages of documents, generally covering a span of time between July and October of 2007.
The records include e-mails sent and received by six people -- Blunt; former chief of staff Ed Martin; communications director Rich Chrismer; former general counsel Henry Herschel; former legal counsel Scott Eckersley; and Rich AuBuchon, formerly the legal counsel and acting director of the Office of Administration.
On Friday night, the governor's office supplied the three media organizations with a list of about 1,400 emails that the office said were not subject to full disclosure. The office cited exemptions under the Sunshine law. As part of the agreement, the three organizations can now contest those exemptions to a special master.

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