Employees in the Assembly Republican Caucus deleted computer files and removed boxes of campaign records from their state offices to keep the files from falling under an open records request by the Wisconsin State Journal, one of the employees said.
The allegations, by former ARC executive assistant Lyndee Wall, appear to be a serious violation of the state's open records law, carrying fines of up to $1,000. Intentionally destroying state records also could constitute criminal conduct, prosecutors said.
Advocates of openness in government say the alleged actions defeat the purpose of the open records law, which states that "a representative government is dependent upon an informed electorate."
"I can't recall a case where the custodian of records resolved the records request by disposing of the records," said Jeff Hovind, editor and publisher of the Waukesha Freeman and president of the Wisconsin Freedom of Information Council, a media-funded group that seeks to protect Wisconsin's open records and open meetings laws.
"It's this kind of stuff that really shakes the public confidence in state government," he said.
Wall, who was the Assembly Republican Caucus's lowest-ranking employee from July 2000 until her resignation in March, said she witnessed and participated in two "major clean-outs" of campaign material from the ARC office after staffers learned the State Journal was investigating campaign activity by the four legislative caucuses.
The caucuses, partisan agencies intended to provide research and other support for legislators, are prohibited from campaigning on state time or using state resources. In a three-part series last week, the State Journal found staffers from all four caucuses routinely flout that ban.
One of the clean-outs, in which she said boxes of documents were loaded into staffers' vehicles and taken to their homes, occurred after the newspaper filed an open records request for all photos and graphics produced by the caucus in 2000.
Wall said the removed documents consisted of the very records the newspaper had sought: campaign brochures, literature and other materials produced by graphic artists at the caucus office on state time.
The records that eventually were turned over to the newspaper were individually selected and scrutinized by three staffers, including caucus director Jason Kratochwill, to exclude any campaign-related material, Wall said.
Even so, three items were found to contain campaign information.
Wall, who said she also took some of the records home, eventually turned many of those over to the State Journal. They included campaign-related material not included in the official response from Kratochwill.
Kratochwill and his boss, Assembly Speaker Scott Jensen, R-Waukesha, have refused previous requests for comment about campaign activity at the caucus. Both returned brief e-mail responses to questions about the State Journal's public records request, however.
"I fully complied with (State Journal reporter) Dee Hall's open records request," Kratochwill wrote. "Any suggestion to the contrary is false."
For his part, Jensen said, "I directed the Assembly Republican Caucus staff to comply fully with your newspaper's voluminous open records requests, and they maintain they have done so."
Wall said the hiding of documents began gradually after a State Journal reporter began "snooping around" the caucus office at 17 S. Fairchild St. in October.
Kratochwill began telling employees to "flip everything over on your desks or put it away or make sure, for God's sakes, take it back with you when you go back out to the campaign,' " Wall said.
Much of the campaign material in the office dated back several years, Wall said. Staffers held onto the items because, in many cases, they could be reused. Few items dated beyond about 1996, Wall said, which she said Kratochwill and deputy director Mark Jefferson told her is when they destroyed campaign material in a "big bonfire."
"Jason said, Yeah, we're probably going to have to have another one of those again,' " Wall said. "I was thinking, that would be an easy solution for them."
Instead, she said, someone brought in a large rolling bin in late October, filled it with boxes of documents, and loaded the material into Jefferson's truck. Wall said Jefferson took the boxes to his home in DeForest.
The late October clean-out occurred before the State Journal's records request but in direct response to the newspaper investigation, Wall said. Because the State Journal had not yet requested the records, it's unclear whether such a removal would violate the open records law.
After the State Journal filed its records request on Jan. 4, Kratochwill instructed staff members to delete or transfer files off their computer hard drives, Wall said.
"We needed to take a day and fine-tooth comb our hard drives because I think he was starting to get really worried at that point," she said.
Wall said someone brought in boxes of high-density computer disks, called SuperDisks, to transfer large numbers of graphic files off caucus computers. She said she doesn't know what became of those disks.
After incompletely filling the newspaper's records request, Wall said, Kratochwill ordered another wholesale cleaning of the office in early February, sending more boxes of documents home with employees.
Wall said she has no doubt the materials were campaign related and that they were produced by caucus employees at their state office and while they were on the state payroll.
"I know what we produced. I watched it being printed. I saw it getting sent to Kramer (a Waunakee printing company) and coming back. And those items weren't in the files" the caucus provided in response to the newspaper's request, Wall said.
At least two candidates for office told the State Journal they were handed campaign literature at the caucus office.
Despite the impropriety of doing campaign work out of their state office, Wall said few staffers seemed worried about being caught. After the State Journal began its investigation, she said, several predicted it would "blow over" just as other newspaper inquiries into the caucus system have.
"It's sort of like, We rule the roost, and who do you think you are that you're going to touch anything that we do?' " she said.
Wall said she was coming forward with the information because she wants campaigning by the caucuses to stop.
Asked whether the activities Wall described could constitute illegal conduct, Dane County District Attorney Brian Blanchard said that sounded like "an extreme form" of denying a records request. Violating the state open records law can result in fines of up to $1,000 as well as punitive damages.
While stressing that he was unfamiliar with the facts Wall is alleging, Blanchard said they also could result in charges of misconduct in public office, a felony carrying a potential sentence of two years in prison.
Assistant Attorney General Alan Lee, who also stressed he was unaware of Wall's allegations, said that if true, such conduct could be considered tampering with public records with intent to defraud, a five-year felony.
The State Journal in January filed identical records requests for photos and graphics with the Assembly Democratic Caucus, the Senate Democratic Caucus and the Senate Republican Caucus. Each produced constituent literature and brochures like the ARC, but no campaign material.
In response to the State Journal's investigation, Blanchard last week sent letters to the directors of all four caucuses reminding them of the law on destruction of public records.
The State Journal has subsequently filed another request for records with each caucus.

State Journal reporter Dee J. Hall contributed to this report.