Anchorage Daily News

Little did Assemblymen Bill Starr and Dan Coffey know an overheard and sometimes vulgar cell phone conversation recorded earlier this month would become the talk of the town.

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Dan Coffey

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Bill Starr

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The tape -- a frank chat about endorsements and campaign donations -- aired on KUDO 1080 radio Tuesday. The state's campaign finance watchdog agency heard the clip too, and launched an investigation.

Wednesday brought a slew of new developments:

• The head of the Alaska Public Offices Commission said that Coffey and Starr will each face separate complaints and that the investigation could lead to complaints against other Assembly candidates as well.

• An FBI spokesman said the agency received a copy of the tape and is reviewing it.

• Starr, who is running for re-election, said he's giving back all his donations and will pay for his campaign himself.

• Both assemblymen asked the city ethics board to weigh in on the accusations.

• Starr described just who it was he was overheard on the recording targeting with profane references: Police officers and the police chief.

Under state law, only designated campaign treasurers or deputy treasurers can collect donations on a candidate's behalf. In the recording, Coffey can be heard saying he "took in $1,500 for Sherri Jackson," a candidate, and other donations for incumbent Assemblyman Dick Traini.

Coffey then tells Starr he gave the contributions to someone else -- it sounds like "Sully," meaning Assemblyman Dan Sullivan -- to give to Jackson. In interviews this week, Coffey and Sullivan said that's what happened, though neither was listed as a treasurer or deputy treasurer at the time.

Coffey and Sullivan said they tried to comply with the law by asking Jackson's camp at the time to list them as treasurers with the APOC. Jackson added Sullivan and Coffey as deputy treasurers this week.

Coffey said the treasurer law hasn't been enforced and is often ignored by candidates as well as the public offices commission.

In response, APOC director Brooke Miles said APOC's investigation is evidence the agency takes the rule seriously.

If someone on the Assembly is acting as a fundraiser and helping to get multiple colleagues elected, the public has a right to know that, Miles said.

"Do you think that a majority of individuals in Anchorage realize the power that the Coffey (fundraising) machine wields on the Assembly?" she asked.

KUDO talk show host Aaron Selbig said the conversation was somehow accidentally recorded on someone's answering machine. He's not saying whose.

The clip begins with an automated voice saying the call was recorded Feb. 12. That was the day of an Assembly meeting.

Traini listed Coffey as a deputy treasurer three days later, according to APOC records.

Traini said he didn't receive the donations collected by Coffey until the day after that. Like Starr, Traini questioned whether the tape had been edited.

Coffey said APOC's questions are fair ones, but citing privacy laws, he questioned whether it was legal for the person who recorded the conversation to make it public.

"It was clearly a private conversation," he said.

Selbig, the KUDO host, said his source sought legal advice before giving the tape to the radio station, to the APOC and the FBI.

The FBI is reviewing its copy, but FBI spokesman Eric Gonzalez couldn't say whether an investigation would follow.

APOC's investigation will look at whether the treasurer law or other campaign finance rules were broken, according to the complaints filed this week.

If the agency finds that other Assembly candidates received illegal donations, those candidates could be investigated too, Miles said.

Miles said she couldn't remember the last time APOC fined someone for breaking the campaign treasurer rules.

On the tape, Starr talks about a meeting he had with Del Smith, a lobbyist for the police union.

Starr can be heard saying the police won't be supporting a candidate in his race, and talks about calling Police Chief Rob Heun to say that if rank-and-file police think Starr doesn't support them, Heun needed to "correct that."

In the clip, Starr then talks about how he's been working on a shooting range project that the department wants. Still, the police union wasn't endorsing anyone in his race, he said.

KUDO distributed a copy of the tape as well as a transcript. In the tape, the profanity is bleeped out. But according to the transcript, Starr then says: "I'm gonna tell those sons-of-bitches to f--- themselves."

Asked in an interview Wednesday if he was talking about the union, Starr said no.

"Probably the rank and file and, and more Chief Heun."

Starr said the clip catches him venting frustration to a friend.

"I mean I'm not going to vote against them or anything like that. ... but the context was that I've got better things that I could spend my time on," he said in the interview.

Starr's comments on the tape sound like a threat, said Everett Robbins, president of the union.

Starr plans to give back the more than $2,000 in donations he's received so far for his re-election bid. He'll pay for his campaign himself in order to avoid any perception of favoritism, he said.

"Raising money is just too controversial," he said.

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