The youngest of seven, Mutchler grew up in what she calls an ”insular, blue-collar” Poconos community. Journalism, which she studied at Penn State, ”was a passport to a lot of places,” says Mutchler, who became the first in her family to earn a bachelor’s degree.

As a reporter for the Associated Press, her skeptical coverage got Mutchler banned from Donald Trump’s Atlantic City casinos. She also became the first female bureau chief at the Illinois State House, which led her to the University of Chicago Law School and the Illinois Attorney General’s Office.

Back home, she oversaw the implementation of Pennsylvania’s 2008 Right to Know Law. Her cause, however, goes back much further. The Declaration of Independence complains that King George III distanced legislators from public records ”for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance,” Mutchler says. ”Since the beginning of this country, the founders were talking about fatiguing citizens into compliance – and I’ve seen this over and over again.”

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