Current and former Republican governors considering 2016 presidential runs say that they have abided by their state laws when it comes to personal emails that included government business — putting them in the same boat as former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, who has defended her use of a secret email account by insisting she complied with federal laws.
Mrs. Clinton’s claims have been challenged by open records experts, who say keeping her own private server and not turning over any emails until more than a year after she left office puts her in a unique category.
But GOP governors could face a difficult time trying to drive attacks on her unless they can show they’ve been more forthcoming, analysts said. And that means more than insisting they’ve complied with their own state laws.
“Many states have open records laws, so their government emails are going to come out anyway,” said Darrell M. West, vice president and director of governance studies at the Brookings Institution. “But they can position themselves as more open than she is by putting their own emails out to the public. That would give them the moral high ground over her.”
Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush set the bar for GOP governors last month when he released a selected cache of 250,000 emails from the private account that he used as governor, and, much like Mrs. Clinton, left out tens of thousands of other emails that were not deemed work-related.
Kristy Campbell, a spokesperson for Mr. Bush, said that her boss complied with Florida public records laws for more than 15 years, and said that “his emails related to state business” have long been available.
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“Aides to Governor Bush reviewed emails to determine if they were related to state business,” Ms. Campbell said. “Personal correspondence unrelated to state business are not [part of the] public records.”
Laws vary from state to state on what is considered public record.
Spokespeople for former Texas Gov. Rick Perry and Gov. Scott Walker of Wisconsin said that their bosses have also followed the letter of the law in their states regarding the use of personal email for government business, echoing Mrs. Clinton’s defense.
“Gov. Walker uses a state email account to conduct state business,” said Laurel Patrick, press secretary for Mr. Walker. “With that said, any email conducting state business on another account would still fall under the state’s public records law and would be available through a records request.”
Alice Stewart, a spokesperson for former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, said he “only worked from a .gov email account” during his time in office.
“It was not until the transition out-of-office period began that Gov. Huckabee set up a personal email account for personal correspondence,” Ms. Stewart said.
A spokesman for New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie declined to comment on his email practices for this story.
And the offices of Govs. Bobby Jindal of Louisiana, John Kasich of Ohio and Mike Pence of Indiana did not respond to multiple messages seeking details on their email use and plans to release messages should they run for president.
Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley, a possible contender for the Democratic nomination, said at a forum hosted by Mr. West at Brookings this week that he “always abided by whatever the state law was on that, and I relied on my legal counsel to do that.”
Mrs. Clinton has admitted she exclusively used an account outside of the state.gov domain system, saying it was more “convenient” for her to mix her government business with private business such as her daughter’s wedding, her mother’s funeral or her yoga classes.
She said she believed she was complying with open records laws that say all government business should be available to be stored on public accounts by trying to mail her colleagues at their official accounts.
But recent revelations suggest those emails weren’t being stored regularly, and Mrs. Clinton’s own lawyers found thousands of messages that they deemed public business that were not sent to official accounts.
Mrs. Clinton said she has deleted more than 30,000 other messages she deems private.
Republican Party officials have seized on the controversy, challenging Mrs. Clinton’s claims of transparency.
But Holly Sherman, spokesperson for the Democratic National Committee, said the way in which some Republican governors relied on their private email raises questions that GOP hopefuls will also have to answer.
The Associated Press reported that Mr. Walker used private email as Milwaukee County executive, Mr. Jindal communicated with his immediate staff via personal email, and Mr. Christie relies on a broad interpretation of an executive order, set up by a Democratic predecessor, regarding disclosure.
“We’re calling on Republicans to stop being hypocrites,” Ms. Sherman said. “Republicans are throwing stones from some very fragile glass houses.”
Mrs. Clinton’s backers say she’s being held to a double standard.
“If y’all are going to spend every waking moment obsessing over the minutiae of Hillary Clinton’s email habits, why shouldn’t Jeb Bush — whose usage of private emails and servers during his tenure as governor is strikingly similar to Clinton’s — be subject to the same scrutiny?” Brad Woodhouse, president of American Bridge 21st Century, said in a press release. “If Bush sent and received over 3 million emails as governor, as he has said himself, how are we to believe only 250,000 were public records?”
Will Marshall, president of the Progressive Policy Institute, described the email saga as a “pseudo-scandal.”
“I think this is a media-manufactured tempest in [the] tea party that, you know, 90 percent of American voters could care less about, and I know it doesn’t keep me up at night,” Mr. Marshall said on CSPAN’s “Washington Journal.” “Bureaucratic infractions around email, if there was even an infraction here, aren’t really going to decide who is the Democratic party’s nominee or who is going to be the next president.”
GOP analysts, though, said that the issue will haunt Mrs. Clinton, and said it is wishful thinking for Democrats to try to make this about GOP governors.
“Yes, every candidate will need to be transparent and make their official records accessible based on the rules that apply to their office,” said Kevin Sheridan, a GOP strategist, adding that some have already done so, and others will follow suit.
“But this will not primarily be a Republicans-versus-Hillary Clinton issue,” he said. “It’s a Hillary Clinton issue. Americans have caught on to her act, and she’s looking very dated.”
• Seth McLaughlin can be reached at smclaughlin@washingtontimes.com.
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