Gov. Chet Culver has once again refused a request by The Des Moines Register to turn over documents, this time e-mails surrounding the governor’s response to the unexpected death of a resident at a state-run home for the disabled.

Culver’s office is calling the e-mails “draft documents,” which it says aren’t required to be disclosed under Iowa law. The Register doesn’t agree with that assessment.

Iowa’s open-records law does not include an exemption for draft documents. However, the Iowa attorney general’s office has said that it believes the Legislature never intended to make preliminary documents, such as drafts of speeches, open to the public.

This isn’t the first instance of the state’s largest newspaper and the governor disagreeing on what constitutes a public document. In August, Culver’s staff refused to release a draft report that outlines Iowa’s housing recommendations after the floods.

In early December, Culver’s staff refused to release a list of recommended budget cuts given to the governor from state departments.

Iowa Attorney General Tom Miller said Tuesday he would work to better enforce open-records and open-meetings laws.