Alaska Sen. Stevens' loses election lead

[EV_Ares]

Source: USA Today

ANCHORAGE (AP) — Democrat Mark Begich took a 3-vote lead Wednesday in his effort to topple 40-year Republican Sen. Ted Stevens, a titan of Alaska politics who was convicted of felony charges in a federal trial last month.
Begich, the two-term mayor of Anchorage, began Wednesday down more than 3,200 votes, but closed the gap as officials resumed counting early and absentee ballots.

AP) — Democrat Mark Begich took a 3-vote lead Wednesday in his effort to topple 40-year Republican Sen. Ted Stevens, a titan of Alaska politics who was convicted of felony charges in a federal trial last month.
Begich, the two-term mayor of Anchorage, began Wednesday down more than 3,200 votes, but closed the gap as officials resumed counting early and absentee ballots.

Neither side expected to be able to claim victory Wednesday. By late afternoon, officials had counted more than 44,000 of the roughly 90,000 outstanding ballots.

Last month, a federal jury in Washington, D.C., 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.





Read more: http://www.usatoday.com/news/politics/election2008/2008...

[av8rdave]

1. Ted's going to the big house!

[tribeofdot]

18. Stevens is quoted as saying..

Prison, it's not like a big building, it's more like a series of cubes

- Senator Ted Stevens speaking about his possible Jail time

[av8rdave]

30. ...a series of cubes...

[tribeofdot]

39. I knew

Someone would get a kick out of that.

[customerserviceguy]

32. Chimpy WILL pardon him

there's no way he's going to let an octegenarian Repuke crony go to prison. Perhaps just a commutation.

I figured that it would be a bargaining chip to get him to resign ahead of an embarassing Senate proceding, but it looks like Ted will have nothing to bargain with on his side, that should move the pardon/commutation to the top of the list.

We need to start worrying about who else is going to be on Shrub's pardon list.

[bdamomma]

36. Scooter will be on that list too.

[customerserviceguy]

40. Yep, he will

they had simply commuted his sentence to keep him out of the slammer, while preserving his appeal rights. McInsane would have gone along with that, but since that's not gonna happen, Scooter scoots out of it entirely on January 20th.

[UpInArms]

2. go Begich! Let justice begin with your win over the corrupt

Stevens!

[goforit]

3. WOW!!!....Fabulous!!

[thunder rising]

4. That would solve that problem of Sarah coming south again.

[Number23]

17. Exactly!

Kill two birds (Stevens and/or Palin in the Senate) with one well-thrown stone!

[racaulk]

5. Wooo!!! Go Begich!

[underpants]

6. Do I want Stevens to lose? You BEGICHya

[maddezmom]

7. If anyone ever thought one or their vote didn't count, I hope they are rethinking it now

[bdamomma]

37. yes exactly, ahead by 3 votes.

yes indeed, your vote does matter.

[DeepModem Mom]

8. K&R!

[SavageDem]

9. As J.J. Walker would say...

Dyno-mite!

[Renew Deal]

10. 3 votes

[GodlessBiker]

11. OMG. Go. Mark, go!

[harpboy_ak]

12. It's going to be a while

before we know the results, and it's likely to be close enough that there will be a mandatory recount. The Begich folks know that they have a LOT of absentees and early voter ballots out there from their very well organized canvassing effort. Mark did several mailings to absentee voters, especially college students and the military, and he got 65% of the in-person vote at Alaska's 3 military bases.

And at least we have PAPER BALLOTS that can be hand counted for a recount, since we use optical scan paper ballots.

As a lifelong Bill Egan Democrat I have always considered Ted to be a Repugnican usurper appointed by Wally Hickel to fill the late Bob Bartlett's seat. It's only fitting that it go to the son of the best Congressman Alaska ever had!

[RedCloud]

13. If this trend continues he will win by 3,000+

Woo-hoo and shut up Sarah!

[gratuitous]

14. Under the Republican rules, we stop counting now right?

We got to a result we like, so we stop counting and we hand the election to our guy.

[mt13]

15. Mudflats

one of my favorite sites during this election season since Sarah Palin was announced as McCain's running mate, is the mudflats blog:
http://mudflats.wordpress.com /

there is some great stuff there, see the Waiting for the Numbers in Alaska... item!

GO BEGICH!

[leftinportland]

16. Begich has a good chance of winning

according to the numbers from "Waiting for the Numbers in Alaska...

"Today the state will count 42,991 of the absentee ballots and 9,333 of the early votes. The rest will come later, hopefully by Friday. But no promises.
The districts that will not be counted today seem to be favoring Begich.

District Begich Stevens Margin
2 54.2 40.9 +13.3
5 55.7 38.0 +17.7
6 47.8 46.3 +1.5
36 53.2 41.7 +11.5
37 50.0 45.9 +4.1
38 65.3 30.6 +34.7
39 58.3 38.1 +20.2
40 58.8 37.7 +21.1
So even if Begich does not overtake Stevens in the vote count today, those remaining districts still leave hope. An automatic recount is only triggered if the votes are exactly the same. However, candidates, or a group of 10 citizens can petition for a recount if the votes are within one half of one percentage point of each other."

[Johnny2X2X]

19. The Republican way

Stevens is down in the vote count, he should concede the election. If he had any honor he would concede. LOL

[W_HAMILTON]

20. I was wondering why this wasn't getting more press around here.

A pretty big development, it seems.

I'd hold off on kicking out Lieberman just yet, since it looks like we might get to 60; the biggest obstacle seems to be the GA run-off. Can we motivate our voters to get out there and possibly get us that 60th senator?

And, yes, I know about the Minnesota recount, but I think there's a good chance we win that, too.

[cooolandrew]

21. It's all coming together now change is genuinely coming.

[Justess]

22. Up by 814

now - with more to be counted tomorrow and Friday. Woot! Looking good!

Peace &

Justess

[L. Coyote]

23. Latest tally: Begich leads Stevens by 3 votes

Source: Anchorage Daily News

November 12th, 2008 04:23 PM

The elections division still has over 10,000 ballots left to count today and thousands more
through next week, but the latest numbers show Mark Begich leading Sen. Ted Stevens 125,019 to 125,016.

Read more: http://www.adn.com/elections/story/586989.html

---

Begich is winning!

[Blue_In_AK]

24. I won't exhale until all the votes are counted

and Stevens is done, thus slowing Sarah's roll a bit. We need to hold Sarah back from any national aspirations. She's got a job to finish here, and I'm not so sure she's up to it.

[Cleita]

25. Don't kid yourself. She doesn't want to do her job. She wants fame and fortune.

It's too bad Mr. DeMille isn't around for her close-up.

It's like the old song from WWI when the doughboys were returning from France after the war.

"How're ya goin' to keep 'em down on the farm, once they've seen Paree?!"

[Blue_In_AK]

26. It's just so freakin' weird.

You know, back in the summer we never saw this coming. She just never acted like this, at least not in public.

After watching her the past two months, I know you're right, she will never stop seeking the spotlight now. She'll be like old Pat Buchanan someday or some other loser who still thinks they're relevant, spouting nonsensical opinions on the TV. I can see it now.

Maybe the legislature will deal with her appropriately, either make her do her job or allow us to hold a recall election. If she doesn't want to be governor, then she should quit.

[Cleita]

27. Good luck to you.

I hope you get rid of her and get someone who cares about your beautiful and unique state.

[MidwestTransplant]

28. Check the LBN thread. Now we are up by 814!

[underpants]

29. Yep 814 here is the link

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.ph...

[L. Coyote]

31. Anchorage mayor swings from 3,000-vote deficit to 814-vote advantage.

Begich takes lead in latest vote count

SENATE RACE: Anchorage mayor swings from 3,000-vote deficit to 814-vote advantage.

By SEAN COCKERHAM and KYLE HOPKINS
November 13th, 2008 01:56 AM
http://www.adn.com/elections/senate/story/587414.html

..... Begich, who was losing after election night, now leads Stevens by 814 votes -- 132,196 to 131,382 -- with the state still to count roughly 40,000 more ballots over the next week.

The state Division of Elections tallied about 60,000 absentee, early and questioned ballots from around the state on Wednesday. The ballots broke heavily in the Democrat's favor, ....

.....

The state still needs to count at least 15,000 questioned ballots and an estimated 25,000 absentees. With all the absentee votes coming in, this will be one of the biggest turnouts, if not the biggest in terms of ballots cast, the state has ever seen. That's despite questions in the media and on blogs about why turnout appeared low on Election Day.

Most regional elections headquarters will count their remaining ballots on Friday. But the most populous region, based in Anchorage, won't count its ballots until either Monday or Wednesday, state elections chief Gail Fenumiai said. ........

[DU GrovelBot]

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[marshall]

34. I hope everyone up there checks the trunks of their cars for ballots

Drag them all in and count them!

[harun]

35. This is huge (n/t)

[bdamomma]

38. great news.

hopefully it will be called.

[fortyfeetunder]

41. What perfect timing!

Stevens will now have some free time to spend in jail!