Ted Stevens Loses Alaska Senate Race
By Doug Mataconis | Related entries in 2008 Election, Democrats, Republicans, SenateThe Democrats picked up a seventh Senate seat last night when final results from Alaska showed Mark Begich defeating long-time Senator Ted Stevens:
Alaska Sen. Ted Stevens lost his job to Mark Begich on Tuesday, putting an end to the era of “Uncle Ted” as the dominant force in Alaska politics.
Begich, the Democratic mayor of Anchorage, widened his lead to 3,724 votes in Tuesday’s count of absentee and questioned ballots. The lead is insurmountable, as the only votes left to count are approximately 2,500 ballots from overseas.
Begich claimed victory, saying, “I am humbled and honored to serve Alaska in the U.S. Senate.”
The loss came on Stevens’ 85th birthday. The 40-year incumbent is the longest serving Republican in the history of the U.S. Senate.
Stevens could ask for a recount but his campaign would have to pay for it. The state pays if the margin is within .5 percent of the total votes cast. But Begich leads by just over 1 percent with more than 315,000 votes cast in the race.
Begich said it would be pointless for Stevens to request a recount. Since the state moved to mostly machine counting, recent Alaska recounts have resulted in little change in the final tally.
Begich said Tuesday evening that Stevens, who was in Washington, D.C., had not called him to concede the race or offer congratulations. “It’s 9:30 D.C. time, so we might not hear tonight, maybe tomorrow,” Begich said.
The Stevens campaign did not respond to requests for comment after the senator’s defeat was clear.
Whether Stevens asks for a recount or not, this result would seem to give Senate Republicans all the excuse they need to formally kick Stevens out of the Senate GOP Caucus, although that would largely be a symbolic move at this point.
This entry was posted on Wednesday, November 19th, 2008 and is filed under 2008 Election, Democrats, Republicans, Senate. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
November 19th, 2008 at 4:40 am
I’m upset to see Uncle Ted go.
November 19th, 2008 at 8:08 am
Well I guess we found what it takes to get a long standing Senator elected out of office.
November 19th, 2008 at 9:48 am
Good riddance to bad rubbish.
November 19th, 2008 at 11:23 am
As important as I think it is for the GOP to be able to offer some small measure of restraint on the Dems by maintaining a filibuster, I could not be happier to see this corrupt crook out of our government.
also - what Cy said.
This moves Jefferson and Murtha to the top of my most corrupt pigs in Congress list. Not sure who goes to the top of the list in the Senate. Maybe Durban. Maybe McConnell.
November 19th, 2008 at 2:12 pm
Jefferson ande Murtha definitely belong on the list, but it’s hard to set a pecking order when you have people like Doolittle, Lewis and Young still if office (OK, Jefferson goes to the top no matter what). Can’t we just call it a 10 most unwanted list and add a few more?
As for the Senate, McConnell for sure, and add Mary Landrieu and maybe Norm Coleman but I’m scratching my head on Durbin…unapologetically left, yes, but corrupt?
Enlighten me.