Thursday, May 17, 2018

They Want To, Need To Know, Have A Right To Know

This week, the Republican Party of Pennsylvania filed an appeal to the Office of Open Records stemming from the denial by the office of Gov. Tom Wolf of the Party’s Right to Know Law request.

That request was filed in April to determine the depth of collusion and partisanship in the drawing of the unconstitutionally developed Pennsylvania Congressional map handed down by the Pennsylvania Supreme Court earlier this year.

The Governor’s office, in part, denied the Republican Party’s Right to Know request seeking communications between the Office of the Governor and their specially-retained map-drawing expert, Moon Duchin, under the auspices of attorney-client privilege; attorney work product privilege; and a Right to Know Law exception related to internal, predecisional deliberations.

In response to the filing of the appeal, Republican Party of Pennsylvania Chairman Val DiGiorgio made the following statement:

“In a continued display of the lack of transparency that has been prevalent throughout the process that unconstitutionally developed Pennsylvania’s current Congressional map, the Governor’s Office seeks to stretch the privilege doctrines and the Right to Know Law exceptions for reasons beyond understanding, especially when given an opportunity to live up to the Governor’s claims of being one of the most transparent administrations in recent history.

“It is for these reasons we have appealed their denial of our request as it relates to the Duchin communications and hope to learn more about the process that went into developing partisan maps that were developed at the behest of national progressive interests, without regard for the moderate views of Pennsylvanians."

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