Gov. Scott Walker holds a press conference after he addressed the 2014 Joint State Education Conference in January. Credit: Michael Sears

Gov. Scott Walker needs to talk. He should hold a news conference to explain how much he knew about a secret email system as Milwaukee County executive. And he needs to let reporters ask as many questions as they want.

Why wouldn't the governor want to clear up questions raised by the release Wednesday of 27,000 pages of emails related to a John Doe investigation into links between his county government staff and his gubernatorial campaign staff in 2010? State law bars public employees from working for political parties and campaigns while being paid by taxpayers to provide government services.

Throughout the secret investigation, as the Journal Sentinel reported, Walker maintained that he had zero tolerance for government employees doing campaign work while on the taxpayer clock. But the records detail almost daily interactions between his top county and campaign staffers.

Court documents previously have shown Walker's county aides set up a secret wireless router in the county executive's office and traded emails that mixed county and campaign business on Gmail and Yahoo accounts.

The emails show that the two staffs worked hand in glove at points to put the best political spin on issues such as the serious problems at the Mental Health Complex and the O'Donnell Park tragedy that resulted in the death of a teenager. They also tie Walker closer to the secret email system than ever before.

In an email that Walker's administration director Cynthia Archer wrote to aide Kelly Rindfleisch, Archer said, "Consider yourself now in the 'inner circle.' I use this private account quite a bit to communicate with SKW and Nardelli. You should be sure you check it throughout the day," she wrote, referring to Walker by his initials and to Walker's then-chief of staff, Tom Nardelli. The documents unsealed Wednesday are part of Rindfleisch's appeal of her 2012 conviction of misconduct in office for doing campaign work on county time.

So was Archer just bragging or did Walker know about and use the secret email system while he was working as county executive? At least one prosecutor thought so, but the governor was not charged in the original John Doe investigation, a point Walker made clear Wednesday before the release of the documents. Point taken, but the governor owes the public a better explanation in light of what the emails show about how his office operated.

The emails are also embarrassing to the governor on another level. In two separate emails, Nardelli shares a racially charged joke and Rindfleisch comments positively on another racial joke. This comes in the wake of revelations involving racially charged statements by two state government aides. Walker fired them after their statements were publicized, and neither worked closely with Walker.

But Nardelli and Rindfleisch did work closely with Walker, and although the emails don't call into question the governor's views, they do raise questions about his judgment in hiring people with such views.

Walker once called out David Duke for his race-baiting comments, has worked with African-American pastors on inner city issues and has called on the Republican Party to do more to reach out to minorities. But these emails by the No. 1 and No. 2 people in his county executive office at least raise questions about the culture in that office.

Walker needs to talk, but apparently he won't right away: His office said Walker won't be taking media questions Thursday; he's traveling to a National Governors Association event in Washington, D.C., and won't return until Monday.

"The governor doesn't have any media availability," spokesman Tom Evenson said.

That's a mistake, especially as he gears up for his run for governor this year and a possible run for president in 2016. The longer he dodges questions, the more he undercuts his reputation as a straight-shooter. There are questions that need answering that only the governor can answer. The people of Wisconsin deserve those answers.