The sweeping federal corruption investigation in Alaska snagged another guilty plea today.

Jim Clark, one-time chief of staff to former Alaska Gov. Frank Murkowski (R), pleaded guilty to conspiring to arrange for corrupt oilfield contractor Veco to pay $68,000 for consultants and polls on Murkowski's 2006 re-election campaign, none of which was ever disclosed as contributions to Murkowski's campaign.

Murkowski ultimately lost in the GOP primary in 2006.

We'll have more on this tomorrow at TPMmuckraker, but to put this in some perspective, the Anchorage newspaper once called Clark Alaska's most powerful (unelected) official, and he is cooperating with the government. This should only get more interesting.