Alaska Senate Update

Mark Begich (D) leads incumbent Sen. Ted Stevens by 1,022 votes. You can get the latest results here.

Begich Leads by Three Votes!

Karen Tumulty reports that Mark Begich is leading Ted Stevens by 3 votes in the Senate race in Alaska. Latest results can be found here.

Update: Begich now leads by 814 votes. The state still needs to count at least 15,000 questioned ballots and an estimated 25,000 absentees.

Ted's Toast

MSNBC reports that Sen. Ted Stevens (R-AK) was found guilty on all counts. (H/T: David)

Stevens was charged with lying on Senate financial forms about $250,000 in home renovations and other gifts he received from an oil contractor.

Stevens spent three days on the witness stand, vehemently denying that allegation. He said his wife, Catherine, paid every bill they received.

Stevens faces up to five years in prison on each count, but under federal sentencing guidelines, he would likely receive much less prison time, if any...

Lucky Break?

In a trial marked by incompetence of the Government prosecutors, the discovery of a technical error could provide another boost for Alaska Sen. Stevens.

In a note Monday to Judge Emmet G. Sullivan, the jury reported it noticed an error in the second count of the indictment, which states that on his 2001 Senate financial disclosure forms, Stevens checked "no" in response to whether he received gifts of more than $260. But Stevens actually checked "yes" and listed a $1,100 gold Special Olympics coin as a gift that year. He did not list other gifts related to the charges... But the jurors noticed the discrepancy between the July indictment and the 2001 form and asked Sullivan how they should proceed.

News Briefs, 10/3/08

The RNC raked in $66 million in September. This is good news for the McCain campaign and for the House and Senate Republican Committees.

Obama invests in Nebraska's second congressional district.

Judge refuses to dismiss Stevens trial.

New voter registrations hit record numbers in Virginia and Colorado.

Questions for Palin

Anchorage Daily News comes up with a list of questions that Charlie Gibson should as Palin. (H/T: Marathon Blog)

Here are a few of the questions.

You present yourself as a Republican maverick who took on your own party's corrupt political establishment. In November's election, your party is running an indicted U.S. Senator, Ted Stevens, who is awaiting trial on charges he accepted more than $250,000 of unreported gifts from the state's most powerful lobbyist. Will you vote for his opponent? Will you urge Alaskans to help you change Washington and vote him out of office? If not, why not?

In spring of 2004, the Daily News reported that you cited family considerations in deciding not to try for the U.S. Senate: "How could I be the team mom if I was a U.S. senator?" What was different this time as you decided to run for vice president?

As governor of Alaska, you have not pushed for laws or regulations that put your personal views on abortion, same-sex marriage and creationism into public policy. As vice president, will you push to outlaw abortion, restrict same-sex marriage and require the teaching of creationism?

McCain spokesman Rick Davis told Fox News the media didn't show you enough "deference." How much deference do you expect to get from Vladimir Putin or Hugo Chavez?

And this nugget from the last question, I think, says a lot about Palin's foreign policy (in)experience.

You have said victory is in sight in Iraq. In July 2007, when you visited Kuwait, you said, "I'm not going to judge the surge." In the March 2007 issue of Alaska Business Monthly, you were asked about the surge and quoted saying:

"I've been so focused on state government, I haven't really focused much on the war in Iraq. . . . While I support our president, Condoleezza Rice and the administration, I want to know that we have an exit plan in place."

Palin’s Stevens Problem

The Hill reports that "Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin is not saying whether she will vote in November to send the indicted Ted Stevens back to the Senate for a seventh full term."

The indictment has put Sen. John McCain’s (R-Ariz.) running mate in a tricky position. If Palin endorses Stevens, it will appear that she is undermining her message of taking on the GOP establishment and cleaning up corruption in her state. But should the popular governor oppose his reelection, it could deliver a blow to Stevens’s campaign and give Democrats ammunition as they try to pick up one more Senate seat.

Palin’s spokesmen in the McCain campaign have not responded to several inquiries seeking comment on the governor’s position on Stevens. A spokesman for the McCain campaign told the Alaska-based Peninsula Clarion that Palin has yet to endorse Stevens, the paper reported on its website Friday.

The Huffington Post on Palin's connections with Stevens:

Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin began building clout in her state's political circles in part by serving as a director of an independent political group organized by the now embattled Alaska Sen. Ted Stevens.

Palin's name is listed on 2003 incorporation papers of the "Ted Stevens Excellence in Public Service, Inc.," a 527 group that could raise unlimited funds from corporate donors. The group was designed to serve as a political boot camp for Republican women in the state. She served as one of three directors until June 2005, when her name was replaced on state filings.

And there’s this from Slate Magazine:

They've worked together since at least 2003, when Palin was a director on Stevens' independent fundraising group, Ted Stevens Excellence in Public Service Inc. In her unsuccessful campaign for lieutenant governor in 2002, she received about $4,500 in campaign donations from an oil firm involved in the Stevens scandal. Palin also filmed a commercial with Stevens in 2006 to demonstrate the senator's support of her gubernatorial campaign. New York Times op-ed columnist David Brooks wrote that Palin has since made "mortal enemies" of Alaska's senators, and Palin has kept her distance from Stevens since his indictment on felony charges of accepting illegal payments from an oil company.

I didn't want to cherry pick the quotes, so I left the David Broder comment in the quote from Slate. But I'm not sure if I agree with Broder's assessment that Palin has made mortal enemies of Alaska's senators. She has endorsed Parnell over Don Young but her ties to Stevens are a lot more complex. I don't think it's unreasonable to ask Sarah Palin if she supports Stevens or not. The questions is whether she will answer the question, and if so, when she will answer the question.

See also : The Palin Effect

The Palin Effect

I wonder if the outcome in the Republican primary for Alaska’s lone congressional district would be any different if Palin had been picked a little earlier. In that race Palin’s lieutenant governor, Sean Parnell is about 150 votes behind incumbent Don Young, with absentee ballots and some provisional ballots yet to be counted. Young, who’s facing all sorts of ethical allegations, would be a much weaker candidate (in the general election) against the Democratic nominee, Ethan Berkowitz.

And then there’s the senate race where long-serving Sen. Ted Stevens (R) is in for a race of his lifetime. He faces popular Anchorage Mayor Mark Begich (D) and polls have shown Stevens trailing Begich. Stevens was indicted on various corruption charges recently and the verdict in this trial is expected sometime before the November elections. Whether Stevens’ likely indictment will be a drag for Palin remains to be seen but here’s an ad Palin probably wishes didn’t exist.