Former legislative aide finally speaks out

ANCHORAGE -- Some, including former Rep. Beverly Masek, have questioned the motives of her former legislative aide, Eric Musser, in filing complaints that she misused campaign funds.

After receiving a copy of the complaint in May, Masek said she believed Musser's actions were those of an employee upset at being fired. She did not speak at Monday's hearing before the Alaska Public Offices Commission, and did not return to the hearing after the commission took a lunch break.

Musser said he was glad to have changed jobs in order to work in Rep. Vic Kohring's office, but denied that the complaint was motivated by bad blood between him and Masek.

He said he'd worked as a legislative aide for more than 10 years, working previously for Rep. Brian Porter, and in the House Speaker's office for five years, and had never seen other employers disregard APOC laws. After working for Masek in 2002 and 2003, he went to work for Kohring, but said he was forced to resign voluntarily after filing the complaint in May.

"The agreement was to go on layoff until after [APOC's decision]," Musser said. "There's a lot of pressure with this, and he [Kohring] didn't deserve it and didn't want it. [I'm off] until the outcome of this, so there'll be no adverse impact on him or on his constituency."

Musser said after making a career out of working closely with legislators, he did not take lightly the decision to point out inaccuracies in Masek's accounting.

"I felt so strongly she went too far," Musser said. "I worked for the Legislature for many years, and I felt strongly enough about it that I didn't say a word [to the press]. I was not out to try it in the press."

Monday's appearance at the APOC hearing was the first time Musser talked about the complaint. He said he avoided talking publicly about the issue, not returning phone calls from media outlets after he filed the complaint.

Contact Rindi White at rindi.white@frontiersman.com.