Topeka ? Attorney General Paul Morrison made hundreds of phone calls this year to a woman with whom he had an affair and sometimes consumed several hours in a single day, records show.

But Morrison said Friday that the affair did not prevent him from making sure the attorney general’s office was “back working for the people of Kansas.”

Morrison plans to step down Jan. 31. He has acknowledged having an affair with Linda Carter, a former subordinate, but denies her allegations of harassment and professional misconduct.

Carter has said the affair began in September 2005 and continued for two years, while Morrison ran for attorney general in 2006 and after he took office. When it started, he was Johnson County district attorney and she was the office’s director of administration. She remained in her county job until Nov. 30, when she resigned.

The county paid for a cell phone for her, and monthly bill records show her phone received more than 500 calls from Jan. 1 through Sept. 29 from one of two cell phones Morrison used or a phone at his home in Lenexa.

The Associated Press obtained copies of the documents Friday from the district attorney’s office through an open records request. However, the monthly bills aren’t a complete record of the possible contacts between the two, because they don’t list calls from Morrison’s state-provided land line or calls to the land line in Carter’s office in Johnson County.

Still, the calls listed in the billing records totaled more than 10,000 minutes, or almost the amount of time in a week. They were most prevalent in January, tapered off during the spring and spiked again during the summer. More than 40 percent were made between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m. on weekdays, but often began before the work day and ended well after it.

The last calls recorded by the billing records were brief: five within seven minutes, starting at 4:14 a.m. on Sept. 29, all from a phone in Morrison’s home. One call, at 1:44 p.m. on July 30, is recorded as having lasted more than two hours.

On July 22, a Sunday, 10 calls consumed more than four hours, according the records. The next day, Carter’s cell phone received seven calls, lasting four hours and 40 minutes. On July 25, 11 calls consumed more than six hours, according to the records.

As the sex scandal continues to engulf Morrison, some fellow Democrats, including Gov. Kathleen Sebelius, have said Kansans shouldn’t lose sight of his work as a prosecutor for nearly three decades. Morrison noted Friday that he’d formed new units on domestic violence and Internet crime.

“Despite the failings in my personal life, drastic improvements were made this year in the attorney general’s office,” Morrison said in a statement. “And I never lost focus on my professional duties.”

Morrison’s critics dismiss his comments about rebuilding the office.

“There is no way to tell if anyone is telling the truth about supposed improvements in their office or whether or they lost professional focus during personal failings without looking at their reputation – which in Morrison’s case is shot,” said Mary Kay Culp, executive director of Kansans for Life, which frequently has been at odds with Morrison over abortion issues.

Morrison faces three separate investigations. Before resigning in Johnson County, Carter filed a civil rights claim with the federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Also, the state board that reviews allegations of misconduct against attorneys has launched its own inquiry.

Johnson County District Attorney Phill Kline plans to appoint a special prosecutor to investigate what he has said is evidence of harassment and blackmail.

According to Carter’s account, she and Morrison had sex in hotels and inside the Johnson County Courthouse. She also said he promised to divorce his wife, bought her an engagement ring and got a tattoo in September with her initials.

When the relationship soured, she alleges, he threatened to ruin her chances of finding a new job. She also said he tried to get her to provide him with sensitive information about Kline’s activities.

Kline previously was attorney general, and Morrison switched parties to challenge Kline’s re-election in 2006. After Morrison defeated Kline, Republicans picked Kline to replace Morrison as district attorney.

According to the billing records, Carter received calls on her cell phone regularly from a cell phone number for Morrison after he took office in January. The records show 113 calls during the month.

Those calls averaged 14 minutes in length and the quarter or so of them that occurred during business hours were, on average, half that length.

The number of calls dropped until May, when only seven were recorded, all from a phone at Morrison’s home. But one of those calls, on May 25, is listed as lasting an hour and 29 minutes, starting at 2:50 a.m.

The number of calls increased again in June. The records show three predawn calls during the first week of June, including one lasting more than an hour on June 3, again from a phone in Morrison’s home.

But no calls were recorded from June 19 through July 12. Then, in the remaining 19 days of July, the bills recorded 106 calls. Calls also were coming to Carter’s cell phone at a greater frequency during the work day, the records show.

In July and August, the phone calls totaled more than 4,500 minutes, according to the billing records, an average of 27 minutes each.

According to Carter’s account, Morrison told her in July that they should get married. She also alleges that he was seeking information about Kline from her.

The calls stopped again on Aug. 18 and didn’t resume until Sept. 19, with one in the morning lasting 45 minutes, according to the records.