E-mails between Anchorage port director, Stevens probed
Published Monday, April 7, 2008
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Stumble It!ANCHORAGE -- The city of Anchorage is investigating whether former Gov. Bill Sheffield violated municipal ethics codes by using his government e-mail account to communicate about campaign fundraising with U.S. Sen. Ted Stevens.
Mayor Mark Begich, a Democrat who is exploring a run against Stevens, said the matter has been referred to the city's senior ethics officer, who will investigate.
The e-mails between Sheffield, the city's port director, and Stevens were released Monday by the Alaska Public Interest Research Group, a public advocacy agency.
AKPIRG says e-mails it obtained through a public records request show Sheffield planning fundraising activities while at work, using his municipal e-mail account.
Stevens released a statement Monday saying that he was using a Blackberry and cell phone account paid for by his campaign committee, and an e-mail account designated for campaign use.
"We are very careful that no official resources are used for campaign purposes," Stevens said. "There was no misuse of federal resources in this situation."
The e-mail conversation took place 18 months ago.
In one, dated Nov. 28, 2006, Sheffield wrote Stevens: "Received your letter regarding request for early money. Will gather up a few checks and hold a FR at my house as well. Have someone call me with the dates and so forth."
Stevens, the longest serving Republican in Senate history, replied later that day. "Look forward to seeing you-and we will gladly accept your help, my friend. This will be a tough election if the war isn't over abd (sic) that doesn't look too good right now! See you soon. Best. T," he wrote.
"The municipal code clearly states that you can't use public resources and public time to raise money for partisan campaign activity, or conduct political activity of any kind. That's not why they're in those jobs, and they just simply shouldn't be doing it," AKPIRG Director Steve Cleary said.
Calls to Sheffield were not immediately returned Monday.
The group has requested any additional campaign-related correspondence between Sheffield and members of the Alaska congressional delegation dating back to 2002.
Begich said the port is working to comply with AKPIRG's public records request.
"Like any other city employee, Governor Sheffield deserves a full review of this allegation and due process under the city ethics code," Begich said in a prepared statement.
Sheffield has been port director since 2001. He was appointed by former Mayor George Wuerch.
Sheffield was Alaska's sixth governor, serving from 1982-1986.
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There needs to be a statute of limitations on this crap.
Whoops Sorry! Nice to see Bill IS alive and well....wasn't aware this issue was something current. I saw his name and thought these political probes were digging back to Sheffield's term as Governor.
An honest mistake actually what with the witch hunt going on I wouldn't be the least bit surprised.
Politics: a surely thing, and I'd have thought better of Begich too. Begich, if you have to dig up dirt like 3 line emails to oust Stevens, you're not emotionally mature enough for his job.
You won't get my vote.
Ted's under so many investigations it is hard to know which one will take him down first!
Ethics for crimany sakes they're politcians, not in their vocabulary. Low ethics is a mayor who uses tax payers money to perform an investigation to benefit himself for political gain.
O MY GOD. Why the hell would he use a separate email just to discuss fund raising. Thats ridiculous. This makes me question there motives. Woopti DOO. If he was disussing a bribe ya that would be something, but just forgetting to log out of one email account onto another being enough to waste our taxpayers money. That really possies me off. Get over it people.
We won’t do anything about a real corruption issue like Murkowski’s Veco poll and more than a hundred polls like it, so what’s the point in pursuing this kind of stuff?
Bill, as long as I've known you, It is a shock that you would cozy up to a repuke.
Marlo Miller
once upon a time in Fbk.
Daisy518_97, The problem is not simply that he was using his municipal email account, it's that he was using it to do fundraising for Stevens at a time when he was supposed to be doing the work for the city that taxpayers are paying him to do.
yeah, but how do you know he wasn't on lunch break and like said above, maybe simply forgot to log out of one email and into another. I hate using separate e-mails. I forward all my e-mail to my google mail, and then when I reply--WHOOPS, it's from my "personal" e-mail.
One of the things that Sarah Palin got Randy Reudrich on was using his computer on the Oil and Gas Commission for party politics.
And good on her. I get what some of you guys are talking about...petty and all. But, we get held to petty stuff all the time, and this behavior leads to these types being so (much more) arrogant
which leads to...
Marlo Miller:
Bill Sheffield was not a good gov. I, along with many others (remember the attempted recall on Sheffield?), believe he was pretty corrupt when he was gov.
And anyway, at least around here, it doesn't matter what one's political persuasion is.
Nepotism, cronyism, power-trips, resource money...Alaska is so corrupt. Ol' Bill just got in before the state began to mature...
I just hope we don't get took again...
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