Former Murkowski Chief of Staff Pleads Guilty to Corruption

According to court documents filed Monday, Mr. Clark arranged for VECO to pay $68,500 for polling and political consultants for Mr. Murkowski’s campaign beginning in April 2006 and continuing into August “in a manner so that the public would be deceived and the payments would not be disclosed, as required by law,” according to documents.

The former governor lost his bid for re-election.

The court documents said Mr. Clark had solicited help from two VECO executives, Bill J. Allen and Richard L. Smith, who pleaded guilty to bribery and other charges last year. The documents said the executives supported efforts by the governor to alter the way the state taxed oil companies and to build a natural gas pipeline.

Mr. Clark’s plea comes as many of Alaska’s most prominent elected officials are under scrutiny for their ties to VECO. Senator Ted Stevens, the longest-serving Republican senator in history, and Representative Don Young, the state’s sole House member, are both being investigated.

David Dittman, a pollster who said in an interview that his company was the one referred to as “Polling Company A” in the court documents, said the $20,000 he received from VECO had come before Mr. Murkowski officially became a candidate and so did not violate state campaign laws requiring disclosure.