By Kathleen Hunter, CQ Staff

Republican presidential candidate John McCain Tuesday called on Alaska Sen. Ted Stevens to resign because of his conviction on seven corruption-related felonies, touching off a flurry of additional calls for Stevens to step aside.

“It is clear that Senator Stevens has broken his trust with the people and that he should now step down,” McCain, R-Ariz., said in a statement. “I hope that my colleagues in the Senate will be spurred by these events to redouble their efforts to end this kind of corruption once and for all.”

McCain’s running mate, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin , who had declined Monday to call for Stevens’ resignation, took a tough line as well after the GOP nominee issued his comment.

“After being found guilty on seven felony counts, I had hoped Senator Stevens would take the opportunity to do the statesmanlike thing and erase the cloud that is covering his Senate seat,” Palin said in a statement. “He has not done so. Alaskans are grateful for his decades of public service but the time has come for him to step aside.”

The statements from the Republican presidential ticket is the surest sign yet that support for Stevens, which had been strong in the three months since he was indicted, is crumbling in the wake of his conviction Monday by a federal jury in Washington of lying on his Senate financial disclosure forms. Initial reaction, even from Democratic Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada, had stopped short of demanding he resign.

Sen. Jim DeMint , R-S.C., a fierce opponent of the earmarks Stevens has just as vehemently defended, also joined the growing chorus of calls for Stevens to step aside, as did Democratic presidential nominee Sen. Barack Obama .

“Yesterday’s ruling wasn’t just a verdict on Senator Stevens, but on the broken politics that has infected Washington for decades,” Obama, D-Ill., said.

Because the calls for Stevens’ resignation are coming so close to Election Day, the question of how a vacancy would be filled is a bit tricky.

State law normally allows the governor to name a temporary replacement who would serve until a special election can be scheduled. But if Stevens loses, his current term will end before a special election could be scheduled.

The verdict does not obligate Stevens — who maintains his innocence and is vowing to appeal — to end his re-election bid or resign from the Senate. He is continuing his campaign to retain his Senate seat, even as Republicans — many locked in their own election battles — distance themselves from him.

But his colleagues can consider expelling him even if he beats back a challenge from Anchorage Mayor Mark Begich — an outcome that now seems significantly less likely. University of Alaska-Fairbanks political science professor Gerald McBeath said Stevens could eke out a victory if he is able to gin up a backlash to the idea that a Washington jury and the Justice Department could hold sway over the outcome of an Alaska election.

“They’re playing the campaign as an anti-federal-government effort, which is a popular theme in Alaska politics,” McBeath said.

Although it is notable that McCain waited a day before issuing his call for Stevens to step aside, the presidential candidate did not hold back in criticizing Stevens, the Senate’s longest-serving Republican.