That Other Branch: Alaska Senate Race

Sen. Ted Stevens (R-AK) consulting with his lawyer

Might as well take a break from all the "Please, Barry, don't fuck this up" chatter and bring you something completely unrelated to the Presidential Election. And what better topic to look to than the Senate? Now that I've got you all wet, allow me to explain. While there are several hotly contested seats up for grabs on the 4th -- we'll be getting into plenty of these over the coming days, mostly in an attempt to keep ourselves from going Arkham over What Could Possibly Go Wrong -- I wanted to make special mention tonight of the Alaska race between incumbent Ted Stevens (R) and his challenger, Mark Begich (D), the mayor of Anchorage.

For a time the notoriously brash and combative Stevens, known to wear an Incredible Hulk tie when he gets down to the serious legislatin', looked to be safe in his seat. But the race has gotten surprisingly interesting since Stevens, a Civil War veteran and the longest serving Republican in the Senate, was indicted in July on seven counts of failing to report gifts and subsequently charged with violating several provisions of the Ethics in Government Act. The issue at hand? About a quarter million dollars in home improvements and expansions for which the Senator did not, apparently, pay.

The trial has been about as amusing as they come. When Stevens took the stand at the speedy trial he demanded, he immediately invoked Marion Barry's famous "Bitch Set Me Up" defense, claiming that his wife was responsible for all things in the home. Further complicating matters was the cooperation of Bill Allen, a former oil company executive who allegedly arranged for the renovations to be completed without cost to Sen. Stevens. At present, the jury is deliberating. Also at present, fivethirtyeight.com has the race (finally) leaning toward Stevens' opponent, Mayor Begich, now that Alaskans have apparently gotten around to reading all those newspapers they have up there.

In summary, we already had an interesting race between a progressive mayor of a city 50 times larger than Wasilla and an abrasive old coot famous for calling the internet a "series of tubes" from the bed he was sharing with the telecommunications industry during the net neutrality debates. Now, we get to see what a conviction or exoneration might do to such a race. Stay tuned.