Stevens losing in recount

spike

spike

New Member
How anyone could vote for the just convicted felon is amazing. Hopefully this is the end of the line for him though.

ANCHORAGE, Alaska – Just as Sen. Ted Stevens appeared set to return to Congress, felony conviction and all, his re-election bid has faltered. If he loses, it also closes a possible door into the Senate anytime soon for Gov. Sarah Palin.

As counting of early and absentee ballots continued in Stevens' race against Democrat Mark Begich, the contest for Alaska's only House seat was settled Wednesday, with the re-election of Republican incumbent Don Young for his 19th term.

In the Stevens race, Begich jumped to an 814-vote lead, after trailing by 3,200 when the day began. The tally late Wednesday was 132,196 to 131,382, with an estimated 30,000 ballots remaining to be counted, some on Friday and some next week.

"After watching the votes today, I remain cautiously optimistic," Begich, a two-term Anchorage mayor, said in a news release. "We ran an aggressive campaign, especially when it came to early voting and absentee."

Stevens' campaign did not immediately return a call seeking comment.

Last month, a federal jury in Washington convicted Stevens of lying on Senate disclosure forms to conceal more than $250,000 in gifts and home renovations from an oil field services company.

That might have spelled quick political doom for a lesser figure, but Stevens is revered here for his decades of public service — and especially for scoring the state enormous sums of federal money.

Begich would be the first Democrat to win a Senate race in Alaska since the mid-1970s, and a victory would put his party one step closer to a filibuster-proof 60-vote majority in the Senate. Democrats are also trying to unseat Republicans in unresolved contests in Georgia and Minnesota.

Fellow senators have called on Stevens to resign if he wins, and he could face expulsion if he declines to step down. In either case a special election would be held to determine his replacement. Palin, fresh from her failed run at the vice presidency, said Wednesday she'd be interested in serving in the Senate.

"My life is in God's hands," Palin said. "If he's got doors open for me, that I believe are in our state's best interest, the nation's best interest, I'm going to go through those doors."

In the House race, The Associated Press declared Young the winner with 50 percent of the vote compared with Democrat Ethan Berkowitz's 45 percent.

Berkowitz campaign spokesman David Shurtleff said the Democrat was not ready to concede, although he acknowledged dim prospects.

Election officials Wednesday counted 57,000 of the estimated 90,000 outstanding ballots, which include absentee, early, questioned and provisional ballots.

Should the Senate results remain close a recount is possible. In Alaska, the losing candidate or a collection of 10 voters has three days to petition for a recount unless the vote was a tie, in which case it would be automatic.

If the difference between the candidates is within 0.5 percent of the total votes cast, the state pays for the recount, to be started within three days of the recount petition. The state Elections Division has 10 days to complete the recount.

If Stevens holds onto his seat, he might remain in the Senate for some time. As a practical matter, Stevens can't be expelled by the full Senate until after an Ethics Committee investigation and a majority vote of that panel. That won't happen until next year at the earliest.

Stevens also plans to appeal his conviction after he's sentenced, in February at the earliest. The appeal could take months or years.

President George W. Bush could also pardon him.


http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081113/ap_on_el_se/alaska_senate
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Just think. If they had done this before the election Stevens would still be in office.

Oops! Sorry Ted. We screwed it up but we're sure you'll understand.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/discussion/2009/04/01/DI2009040101558.html

U.S. Seeks to Drop Case Against Former Sen. Stevens
Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr.: 'Certain information should have been provided to the defense for use at trial'

Del Wilber
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, April 1, 2009; 2:30 PM

The Justice Department filed court papers this morning asking a federal judge to toss out the conviction of former senator Ted Stevens (R-Alaska) on corruption charges.

Washington Post staff writer Del Wilber was online Wednesday, April 1, at 2:30 p.m. ET to discuss the case.

The move comes as a federal judge was preparing to conduct hearings to probe allegations of prosecutorial misconduct by the team that tried one of the most powerful Republicans in Congress. Stevens, 85, was convicted in October on seven counts of making false statements on financial disclosure forms to hide about $250,000 in gifts and free renovations to his Alaska home. Stevens's attorneys have urged U.S. District Judge Emmet Sullivan to drop the case and prevent prosecutors from seeking to retry the former senator, who lost a reelection bid about a week after his guilty verdict.

In a statement, Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. said he and other Justice lawyers had reviewed the case and "concluded that certain information should have been provided to the defense for use at trial."
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You know the Justice department is looking to reverse the conviction don't you? I am not sure of all the details but I skimmed a story about it and it seems it was not a legit conviction in the first place. If he loses his seat so be it, but I really am not sure he was even guilty.
 
BBC News said:
Stevens conviction to be reversed

Mr Stevens first entered the US Senate in 1968
Alaska Senator Ted Stevens's conviction for corruption should be overturned, officials from the US justice department have requested.

Mistakes made by prosecutors during his trial render the conviction invalid, the officials said.

In October 2008, a jury found Mr Stevens, a Republican, guilty of lying about gifts and free home renovations he received from an oil company.

Mr Stevens went on to lose his Senate re-election battle the following month.

He was the longest-serving Republican senator, having first entered the chamber in 1968.

'Cloud removed'

Prosecutors made a number of errors during the trial, officials said, the chief among which was the failure to make available notes of a crucial interview in which a witness made a statement that contradicted evidence he gave later under oath.

The prosecutors who made the error have been removed from the case and placed under investigation.

A judge will hear the justice department's request on Tuesday, and is expected to grant the motion to overturn Mr Stevens's conviction.

"I always knew that there would be a day when the cloud that surrounded me would be removed," Mr Stevens said in a statement.

"That day has finally come. It is unfortunate that an election was affected by proceedings now recognised as unfair."

The BBC's Jon Donnison in Washington says the high profile case clearly led to Mr Stevens losing his seat and gave the Democrats an important addition to its ranks in the US Senate.

But President Obama's new Attorney General Eric Holder is sending a message that Justice Department prosecutors must operate within the law, our correspondent adds.
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Why is it the best news in America isn't even American?

Looks to me like the guy kind of got railroaded. I hate to see that even if I am in disagreement with a man's politics. Hopefully he will soon be vindicated.
 
I would like to hear the explanation for the free gifts and home renovations. You think this is a loophole or technicality....or that he really didn't do anything wrong?
 
SOURCE

Special 'Rerun' Alaska Senate Election Highly Unlikely

The Alaska Republican Party and Gov. Sarah Palin both want to see a new election for U.S. Senate after charges are dropped against former Sen. Ted Stevens. But nobody representing Alaska in Congress has joined that call, and legal analysts say there is no legal basis for anybody to force a special election.

[more]
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yeah there is no legal basis for that. Or for getting oil companies to remodel your house.
 
Judge orders investigation of Stevens prosecutors

WASHINGTON – A judge has dismissed charges against former Sen. Ted Stevens because of prosecutorial misconduct and has ordered a criminal contempt investigation of the prosecutors.

"In nearly 25 years on the bench, I've never seen anything approaching the mishandling and misconduct that I've seen in this case," U.S. District Judge Emmet Sullivan said in the opening moments of a hearing.

Sullivan read a stinging summary of the many times the government withheld evidence or mishandled witnesses in the case.
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Did Stevens lose his Senate seat because of these charges? Will a special election be held?
 
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