Markell's 'secret' email questioned by Rep. Kowalko

A Democratic state lawmaker and a leading open-government advocate say Gov. Jack Markell is sidestepping transparency by using a pseudonym email address to conduct public business.

Rep. John Kowalko, D-Newark, and John Flaherty, president of the Delaware Coalition for Open Government, sent a Freedom of Information Act request to the governor's office on Thursday to uncover the alias that Markell uses to send and receive emails.

A lawyer for Markell told The News Journal last week that the governor uses a pseudonym to email.

"Secret email accounts used by public officials violate the spirit of Delaware's Open Government Law and prevent the public from exercising that opportunity to observe and monitor these same public officials," Kowalko and Flaherty said in the request.

In an interview, Kowalko said, "Nobody in government who is required to release their emails on policy matters or state matters should be allowed to conceal or hinder their identity," Kowalko said.

A spokeswoman for Markell said on Thursday that the governor stands by his record on transparency, saying all the governor's emails are available under open records requests.

"There is nothing secret about the governor's state email accounts, which are on the state system and subject to FOIA," Markell spokeswoman Kelly Bachman said in an email.

"He uses jack.markell@state.de.us, governor.markell@state.de.us and one other account address that is set up to allow him to use email without spamming or unsolicited messages that could make the account unusable."

Bachman pointed to a media report showing that U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder has used an alias to send emails.

A News Journal story that said Markell uses a pseudonym email prompted the request from Kowalko and Flaherty. Markell's email address was redacted in response to The New Journal's recent open records request seeking communications regarding the governor's proposal to raise Delaware's gas tax.

House Minority Leader Daniel Short, a Seaford Republican, said he was surprised to learn that Markell communicated using a pseudonym, and he questioned the governor's decision. "Why would you have this clandestine email account?" Short asked. "At best, it doesn't put forth a real good impression of any politician to have something like that. I can't imagine the need."

Markell's office would not provide the pseudonym address on Thursday. Flaherty said Markell should be fully transparent about his email.

"People have the right to monitor the activities of elected officials," Flaherty said. "Certainly, email requests are part of that process. If we're going to be monitoring, whether it be the governor or state Legislature, we need to know the fact they have emails."

Lawmaker emails are exempt from disclosure under Delaware's open records law, and cannot be obtained by the public or members of the press. Kowalko said he opposes the broad FOIA exemption for lawmaker emails.

But the Newark lawmaker said Markell's excuse that he receives spam and unsolicited messages in his official email account is no reason to conceal important communications under an alias.

"I delete spam all day long," Kowalko said.

Contact Jonathan Starkey at (302) 983-6756, on Twitter @jwstarkey or at jstarkey@delawareonline.com.