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Former state Rep. Ethan Berkowitz, D-Anchorage, said the guilty plea by the top aide to former Gov. Frank Murkowski shows what's gone wrong with Alaska politics in recent years.

"You had a very dangerous situation - very high stakes and very few people who control the levers of government," Berkowitz said.

The former lawmaker is seeking the Democratic nomination to run for the seat now held by U.S. Rep. Don Young, R-Alaska. Berkowitz was in Juneau this week to raise money for his campaign.

One of those people in control was Jim Clark, a Juneau attorney who served as Murkowski's chief of staff. He admitted Tuesday that he'd helped VECO Corp., formerly Alaska's largest oil field services contractor, make illegal campaign contributions to Murkowski.

Clark pleaded guilty to a felony conspiracy charge and is awaiting sentencing.

Berkowitz was the House minority leader in 2006 when the Petroleum Profits Tax was adopted and Murkowski's natural gas pipeline contract was rejected.

The oil tax, supported by Murkowski and Clark, passed over the objections of Berkowitz, who said it charged too little for the state's oil. State leaders approved the tax because of the influence oil producers wielded through VECO, he said.

"What angers me so much isn't that I lost," Berkowitz said. "It's that I lost and the outcome was fixed."

VECO executives have pleaded guilty to bribing several legislators.

Clark declined comment and Murkowski was unavailable for comment.

Berkowitz said those legislators who were trying to get a fair price for Alaska's oil were facing state leaders who saw their interests more aligned with the state's big oil producers than Alaskans.

"There were too many people who thought what was good for BP, Exxon and ConocoPhillips was good for Alaska," he said.

When Clark, lead negotiator on the gas pipeline for Murkowski, was meeting with the oil producers, Berkowitz said he didn't know who was representing Alaska.

"It's almost as if the Murkowski administration forgot which side of the table it was sitting on," he said.

Berkowitz said the back-room deals that characterized the negotiations amounted to "a complete surrender of this state's sovereignty to big oil."

The new administration of Gov. Sarah Palin rejected the oil producers' request to negotiate a gas pipeline contract only with them, and instead began a public process to select a licensee to build the pipeline.

Berkowitz said he's happy with that public process so far.

"I have confidence in her ability to stand up for the people and the state of Alaska," he said.

• Contact reporter Pat Forgey at 586-4816 or patrick.forgey@juneauempire.com.