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http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/31/washington/31stevens.html?ref=politics
Ted Stevens Receives a Hero’s Welcome in Alaska
ANCHORAGE — Two days after he was convicted on seven felony counts in Washington, Senator Ted Stevens returned to Alaska on Wednesday night to begin a six-day campaign sprint, telling several hundred supporters at a rally here that he would be vindicated on appeal and asking them to elect him to a seventh term.
“I will represent Alaska in the senate while my lawyers pursue the appeals to clear my name,” Mr. Stevens said.
Mr. Stevens faces a strong re-election challenge from Mark Begich, the mayor of Anchorage, a Democrat. Even as top Republican leaders have called on Mr. Stevens to resign and many political experts believe his chances of re-election are slim, some people refuse to rule out the possibility of his winning, given his stature here.
The senator, a 40-year incumbent known for delivering billions of dollars of federal money and projects to Alaska, was met in an airplane hangar here on Wednesday night with chants of “We need Ted.”
Just two days earlier, he had been convicted of seven counts of failing to report more than $250,000 in gifts and home renovations he received from a wealthy former oil services industry executive, William J. Allen. And before the rally, Mr. Stevens encountered still more pressure to step down.
Several leading Republican senators joined calls for Mr. Stevens to resign. Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the Senate Republican leader, was quoted by a newspaper in his home state as saying that “there is a 100 percent certainty” that the senate would vote to expel Mr. Stevens should he win re-election and his appeals fail. Senator John McCain, the Republican presidential nominee, and his running mate, Gov. Sarah Palin of Alaska, have also called on Mr. Stevens to resign.
Mr. Stevens made no reference to those demands on Wednesday, but he spent half of his eight-minute speech criticizing his conviction. He expressed regret but stopped short of apologizing, saying he had been guilty only of naïveté.
“Like most people, I’m not perfect,” Mr. Stevens said at one point, before referring to Mr. Allen. “I naïvely trusted someone who I thought was an honest friend, when he was neither honest nor a friend. That naïve trust, however, has put all Alaskans and my family through an ordeal that I deeply regret.”
He accused federal prosecutors of being “willing to do anything to win” and he implied that holding his trial in Washington added to its illegitimacy.
“If I had had a fair trial in Alaska, I would have been acquitted,” he said to cheers.
He added: “By providing for an appeals process, our founding fathers knew that mistakes could be made and innocent men could be wrongly convicted. This is one of those times.”
Supporters in the crowd suggested that the only verdict that matters is the one on Election Day. One person carried a sign saying “Alaska Decides, Not D.C.”
Mr. Stevens plans to campaign in Fairbanks during the day on Thursday but will return to Anchorage for a debate with Mr. Begich on Thursday night. It will be the first time Mr. Stevens has appeared in person for a debate with Mr. Begich. In some debates, he has submitted videotaped answers to questions provided in advance while Mr. Begich answered questions in person.
One other legal matter has been settled for Mr. Stevens since his conviction: After questions arose over whether Mr. Stevens could vote because he is now a convicted felon, the Alaska Department of Law on Wednesday concluded that he would retain his voting rights until he received a sentence. His sentencing has not been scheduled.http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/31/washington/31stevens.html?ref=politics
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Last Stand
The federal prison closest to anchorage sits in tiny Sheridan, Ore., where the fenceless minimum-security wing already houses 491 inmates, including a few Alaska legislators who were greased by oil money. There's an outdoor track, plus lots of fresh air perfumed by local vineyards and what former Anchorage state representative Tom Anderson calls "very professional and respectful staff."
Joining them soon may be Senator Ted Stevens, Alaska's senior Republican, who was found guilty on Oct. 27 on seven felony counts related to $250,000 of unreported gifts from influential constituents. Stevens, whose political trademark was his immense success at bringing home the bacon--$3.4 billion in federal earmarks for Alaska since 1995--was convicted by a jury in Washington for making false statements about gifts like his new massage chair, a pricey sled-dog puppy and, most of all, massive renovations to his home that were largely comped by Bill Allen, the disgraced CEO of Veco Corp., an oil-services company. Stevens, 84, had predicted the outcome before he even knew the FBI was listening to his telephone conversations. In a particularly incriminating wiretap that was introduced as evidence in his trial, he assured Allen that "the worst that can happen to us is we ... might have to serve a little time in jail."
Actually, darker days are now in store.
Before his conviction, Stevens was locked in a tight re-election race with Anchorage mayor Mark Begich; after the jury returned a verdict, Stevens' poll numbers dipped. But even if Stevens does eke out a victory, he is already facing calls from across his party to resign soon afterward. Both John McCain and Sarah Palin called on Stevens to step down after the election. Under Alaska law, a resignation would set in motion a chain of events leading to a special election to replace him 60 to 90 days later. If he chooses not to resign and his appeals fail, the Senate would probably toss him out. "There is zero chance," said GOP leader Mitch McConnell, "that a Senator with a felony conviction would not be expelled from the Senate."
Any of these fates--defeat, resignation or expulsion--would be an ironic career ender for the 40-year Washington veteran whose control of the federal purse strings once made his colleagues practically genuflect in his presence. Longtime friend Jack Roderick, who practiced law with Stevens 40 years ago, sounded subdued at his Anchorage home the day of the verdict. "It's just sad on a personal level," said Roderick, who believes his old friend is innocent. "No question, he showed bad judgment to get associated with a guy like Bill Allen. He got sloppy."
Stevens treated the verdict like just another feature of a re-election campaign, claiming "prosecutorial misconduct" and vowing to "fight this unjust verdict with every ounce of energy I have." It is possible that in Alaska, with oil prices tanking, voters could decide that their state will have a hard time building the kinds of roads, bridges and schools they've come to expect without Stevens there to lard up the federal budget.
Stevens' years in power have earned him loyalty among Alaskans. At a Federation of Natives meeting on the weekend before the verdict--more than 4,000 native leaders in a massive convention hall in Anchorage--Stevens sent a video message in which he asked for their prayers and apologized for missing the meeting. Julie Kitka, a Chugach native who is the federation's president and was a character witness for the defense in Stevens' trial, predicted that the state's 125,000 natives--about 20% of the population--will stick by him. At the end of his video, she said, the entire audience rose and gave Stevens a standing ovation.
But
local affection won't trump the mess he made. If Stevens loses on Nov.
4, the Dems could inch closer to a 60-seat Senate supermajority. He and
Palin have not been particularly close, but she could also be tarnished
by the sorry spectacle in Alaska. In the Lower 48, the only people
cheering Stevens now are Democrats.
Find this article at: http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1855365,00.html
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