During Dreyfus' term of office, he attempted to meet with the press at least once a week in order to promote his concept of an “open” administration. His public information staff avoided issuing press releases, preferring instead to hold weekly press conferences in Madison and Milwaukee. Dreyfus customarily opened his press conferences with a brief statement and then took questions from reporters. The conference was ended by a staff member who thanked the Governor for his time. While traveling or on vacation, the Governor took questions from the press during telephone conference calls. Most press conferences lasted approximately 30 minutes and ranged broadly in subject matter. Tape recordings were made by Dreyfus' staff of almost all of his press conferences from those shortly after his inauguration to his final one in December 1982. Staff members (occasionally 2 or 3) made notes during each recording and keyed those notes to numbers from the tape recorder's counter (presumably a Marantz Superscope). Using those notes, staff members then made taped excerpts which were played on the Governor's call-in Actuality Line. Dreyfus “watchers” from the Assembly and Senate Democratic Caucuses attended most press conferences, made their own tape recordings and wrote abstracts which they then distributed to caucus members. Bill McClenahan did most of the work for the Assembly, with Julia Sherman performing the same function in the Senate. Republican caucuses were not as active in documenting press conferences and did not retain any of the records that were made.
For a biography of Governor Lee Dreyfus, see the Wisconsin Blue Book 1981-1982.
