Bridge on WJR: Candidates promise government transparency (again)

Bridge Michigan reporters Lauren Gibbons and Simon Schuster joined WJR’s ‘All Talk with Kevin Dietz’ to discuss democracy
Topics included voting rules, election integrity, government transparency and more
The WJR collaboration is part of Bridge Listens. We are asking readers to nominate their top 2026 election issues in this form

Bridge Michigan political reporters Lauren Gibbons and Simon Schuster joined WJR-760 on Wednesday to discuss their reporting on democracy, voting rules and government transparency.

They were guests on “All Talk with Kevin Dietz” as part of an ongoing election-year collaboration between Bridge and WJR. You can watch the segment here:

The collaboration — known as “Election 2026 Coverage that Matters to Michigan” — is part of Bridge Listens, a yearlong effort to help identify and discuss the top election issues in Michigan before the 2026 election.

Vote on top issues in Michigan

Michigan is one of just two states that fully exempts both the Legislature and governor’s office from public records requests under the Freedom of Information Act.

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Reform efforts have repeatedly stalled in Lansing, where lawmakers are “implicitly benefiting from not having the light of transparency shined up on their personal emails and their records,” Gibbons said.

All major party candidates for governor say they support expanding the law.

Three of four — Democrats Chris Swanson and Jocelyn Benson, along with Republican Perry Johnson — told Schuster they would voluntarily open their offices to public records requests if the Legislature doesn’t act.

Republican John James would not make that pledge.

Gov. Gretchen Whitmer made a similar promise in 2018 and has not yet followed through.

Current law “means that we essentially can’t lift the veil on a lot of what happens in the Legislature and the governor’s office,” Schuster said.