Sen. Stevens Falls Further Behind In Count

As Alaska Continues To Tally Ballots In Tight Race, Dem. Challenger Pads Lead

(AP)  Republican Sen. Ted Stevens, a stalwart of Alaska politics who was convicted of felony charges last month, fell further behind his Democratic rival Friday, and most remaining ballots come from parts of the state that have favored the challenger.

Mark Begich, the two-term mayor of Anchorage, increased his lead from 814 votes to 1,022 as state election workers counted 17,100 ballots. Begich had 47.4 percent of the vote to Stevens' 47.0 percent.

"With the gap widening slightly in our favor today, I feel even more optimistic that when all the ballots are counted next week, we'll see Alaskans came out to vote for new leadership in Washington, D.C.," Begich said in a news release.

The 25,000 remaining votes will be counted Tuesday. They come mostly from Anchorage and the surrounding area, where Begich is leading, and from the state's southeastern panhandle, where he was doing even better.

Stevens, 84, is seeking his seventh term in the Senate, where he has served since 1968. He's renowned for bringing federal funding home to Alaska - as well as for wearing his Incredible Hulk tie when the going gets rough in Congress.

But last month he was convicted by a federal jury in Washington, D.C., of lying on Senate disclosure forms to conceal more than $250,000 in gifts and home renovations from an oil field services company.

About 5,000 of the votes tallied Friday came from the Matanuska-Susitna Borough north of Anchorage, a conservative area home to Gov. Sarah Palin. Stevens has been leading in that area by a margin of 2-to-1. Also counted were votes from the interior city of Fairbanks and surrounding areas, where Stevens has a slight lead, and the vast Alaska Bush, where Begich is winning easily.

Even David Dittman, a pollster who has worked for Stevens, said his friend's chances were extremely slim. He said many of the votes now being counted were cast before Stevens returned from his trial and began to campaign personally, which helped him in the polls.

"That doesn't change anything for all those votes that were cast earlier," he said.

Absentee ballots went out Oct. 14; Stevens was convicted Oct. 27.

Statewide, about 8,500 of the remaining votes are questioned ballots (known elsewhere as provisional ballots). They are most commonly cast by people who are voting away from their home polling places.

Ivan Moore, an Anchorage pollster who has worked for Democrats, said those voters tend to be younger, single and more likely to vote Democratic.

"I just don't see a significant bloc of votes that's remaining for Ted to get him back into this," Moore said.

Stevens' campaign didn't return calls seeking comment.


For results visit the Alaska Division of Elections Web site.

[treknutz]

"The Internet is a series of tubes! It''''s not like a truck!"

Hey Teddy, those tubes brought you down. How does it feel to have them shoved so far up your colon that if you sneeze you will short circut your pacemaker?

[treknutz]

Speaking of term limits, anyone read Vince Flynn''s book by the same title? It is well worth the read.

[treknutz]

Anyone remember Mad Magazine?

Sung to the tune of Camptown Races!

Old Ted Stevens is gonna lose...do da, do da
Sarah Palin''s crying the blues...all the do da day

Gonna cry all night..
Gonna cry all day...

Old Ted Stevens is headin for jail..zippidy do da day!

[nikosk11]

I ABSOLUTELY AGREE WITH THE TWO-TERM LIMIT.

IF THE PRESIDENT HAS TO SERVE NO MORE THAN TWO TERMS SO SHOULD THE REST OF OUR ELECTED BUMS.

[mytoosense]

Looks like Sarah Palin will have to go to Washington the same way we do; On a Tour Bus.

[mytoosense]

Hey downstream why would we want to silence our comedy hour? OReilly and Hannity provide more laughs than comedy central on a daily basis.
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Posted by kmaxrno

Yeah, my favorite Episodes was when Bill O''Reilly would bring Congressman Mark Foley on the show to talk about congressional efforts to fight sexual child abuse... Priceless!

[bpai99]

Stevens still will pull this out. You don''t corrupt and pervert a system for 40+ years only to let something as trivial as the voters take it away from you. Should Begich win more votes, all Stevens has to do is demand a recount, claim fraud in some areas and let the entrenched Republican power structure at the state level "investigate" prior to ruling in his favor. We may soon be seeing much press about Alaska''s equivalent of Katherine Harris in Florida.

Stevens ain''t going nowhere.

[aldon61]

Be very careful of Sarah Palin. She might pull some "Repuke $hit" and steal the election.




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Posted by nikosk11 at 12:01 PM : Nov 17, 2008

It''s been done before in Florida; keep an eye on Sarah Palin!

[nikosk11]

Be very careful of Sarah Palin. She might pull some "Repuke $hit" and steal the election.

[obamaslady]

Posted by Irmcvet97:

Trickle down was the figment of Reagan''s imagination and the words sounded good to him so he ran with it. It was the worst crock of c**p ever sold to America and we never saw a penny of trickle. But as usual the rich got richer. Any Republican who would try that wasted c**p again needs to be thrown out of office because I don''t believe the American people would ever accept anything even remotely like it again. If the GOP can''t come up with genuine changes that help the middle class, they may as well hang it up now! The middle class want a chance to a better life, and I believe Obama will provide that chance. I''m not saying a "handout", just an opportunity to have a better life. Had I known it was so easy to get elected as a governor living in Alaska, I would have moved up there and an taken that job because I know I can speak better English than Palin. At least my sentence structure is concise and makes sense!