Scott Walker's dubious Dodge.

• Author: Rothschild, Matthew

Many people can't understand how Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker managed to escape being indicted by the first John Doe investigation, which led to convictions of six of his associates.

For instance, a former Wisconsin attorney general and a Milwaukee county supervisor who was subpoenaed by the John Doe prosecutor are wondering why Walker wasn't charged with violating the state's public records law while he was Milwaukee county executive. The recently released 27,000 pages of documents from the first John Doe investigation provided enough evidence to bring such a charge, they say.

John Weishan, a Democrat and a critic of Walker on the Milwaukee County Board, submitted an open records request for the computer communications in the county executive's office back in the spring of 2010. Weishan suspected at the time that Walker or members of his staff were doing campaign work on the public dime, which turned out to be the case.

But Weishan received only four vacuous pages back in response to his request, along with a bill for $2,800 and the accusation from Walker's staff that the supervisor was engaged in a "fishing expedition."

Today, Weishan says, he feels vindicated. The document dump "proves that everything I thought was going on at the time did take place," he says.

The documents show Walker regularly communicating on a private e-mail system during work hours both on campaign business and county business.

Cindy Archer, Walker's deputy, told another staffer about the secret communication network: "Consider yourself now in the 'inner circle.':) I use this private account quite a bit to communicate with SKW." Those are Walker's initials.

In another e-mail, Walker asked Archer to "get me all the facts" to counter an attack by his Republican primary challenger.

The chief investigator of the Milwaukee County District Attorneys Office, David Budde, testified on November 1, 2010, that Walker himself, as Milwaukee county executive, was illegally using the private communication system that his staff had set up.

Budde was asked under oath: "Did you find any e-mails written by the county executive himself" on "personal laptops in the county executive's Office?"

Budde answered with one word: "Yes."

The documents prove his point. Walker was involved in the tiniest details of political responses in his office, from writing talking points for his county staff to slowing down responses to constituents who raised politically harmful issues.

For instance, at...