CQ TODAY ONLINE NEWS
Nov. 13, 2008 – 5:16 p.m.
Alaska Senate Race on Hold
By Rachel Kapochunas, CQ Staff
Alaska elections officials will resume counting absentee ballots on Friday in the contest that will determine whether Republican Ted Stevens returns to the Senate.
Anchorage Mayor Mark Begich, the Democratic challenger, held an 814-vote lead after a round of ballot-counting on Wednesday. But his campaign staff, which has been monitoring the vote count, estimated that 40,000 ballots remained to be counted. Some of those were absentee ballots and some were ballots that had been questioned by judges on Election Night and set aside for later review.
In addition, more ballots could arrive from overseas military posts.
Any additional votes that arrive after Friday will be counted by the State Review Board, according to Elections Program Manager Jonathan O’Quinn.
The votes are expected to be certified the first week of December, O’Quinn said.
Begich trailed Stevens in the preliminary tally on Nov. 5. But after absentee results were tallied this week, he had a total of 132,196 votes versus 131,382 votes, or a margin of 47.4 percent to 47.1 percent.
Under Alaska election law, an automatic recount is triggered by a tie vote.
However, a defeated candidate or 10 qualified voters may request a recount if the margin of the certified vote is less than .5 percent.
In a fundraising email to supporters Thursday, Begich campaign manager Heather Rauch wrote: “In the end we expect that this will be a very close race and there will be a recount. We are starting to prepare for this scenario, and will really need your support to make sure every vote is counted fairly.”
Stevens, meanwhile, returned to Washington.
His spokesman, Chip Abernathy, said he presumed the senator would remain in town to participate in next week’s lame-duck session of the Senate.
At Stevens’ request, his trial on charges of failing to report the receipt of expensive gifts and services was scheduled to start and finish before the election so that he wouldn’t have to run with the uncertainty of not having yet faced a jury.
He was convicted on all seven counts.
Alaska Senate Race on Hold
Stevens has said he will appeal and rejected entreaties by colleagues who wanted him to resign.
But fellow Republicans may take matters into their own hands by refusing to give him any committee seats in the next session of Congress. That effort will play out in a secret vote next week by all returning GOP senators.
Stevens, the longest serving Republican senator, built his career on an Appropriations Committee seat that put him in a prime position to steer federal dollars to Alaska. He emphasized his clout and seniority during the tough re-election campaign against Begich.
Alaska typically is Republican turf, but the corruption scandal that led to Stevens’ conviction made the lawmaker a Democratic target long before his indictment. Additionally, Stevens has been heavily criticized for his hot-tempered nature, which Begich argued has already diminished Stevens’ standing in Congress. Begich also postured the he would be more effective than Stevens because Begich is a member of the majority party.
Alaska’s Senate race is one of three Senate races that remain undecided. In Minnesota, the race between Republican Sen. Norm Coleman and comedian and writer Al Franken, a Democrat, appears headed for a recount. And in Georgia, Republican Sen. Saxby Chambliss is preparing for a Dec. 2 runoff with former Democratic state Rep. Jim Martin.
Kathleen Hunter contributed to this story.
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