Alaska senator indicted in corruption case

Stevens accused of concealing thousands in gifts

Ted Stevens is the longest- serving Republican in the Senate.

WASHINGTON - The indictment of Senator Ted Stevens, an Alaska Republican, on corruption charges yesterday throws into question his grip on a Senate seat that he has held for decades and offers Democrats a chance to strengthen their hold on Congress.

Stevens, the longest-serving Republican in the Senate and a towering figure in Alaska's political history, was indicted by a federal grand jury here in the alleged concealment of hundreds of thousands of dollars in gifts he received from one of Alaska's most powerful employers. The indictment accused Stevens, 84, of accepting more than $250,000 in improvements to his Alaska home, and other gifts, ranging from a gas grill to a new Land Rover, from VECO Corp., an oil-field services company.

"It saddens me to learn that these charges have been brought against me," Stevens said in a statement in which he denied that he had ever knowingly submitted a false disclosure form. "I am innocent of these charges and intend to prove that."

Stevens said he had relinquished his post as senior Republican on several congressional committees, in accordance with Senate Republican rules requiring a member indicted on a felony to give up leadership posts.

Stevens has served in the Senate since 1968 and has held some of its most powerful positions, including chairmanships of the Appropriations and Commerce committees. He is legendary for bringing home federal dollars to Alaska; the Anchorage Daily news once wrote that Stevens was "the second-largest engine of the Alaska economy."

According to Citizens Against Government Waste, a Washington watchdog group, Stevens sponsored a total of 1,452 pork-barrel projects worth $3.4 billion between 1995 and 2008, making Alaska the number one state in pork per capita every year since 1999.

The indictment casts a long shadow over Stevens's political future. He is up for reelection this year, and news reports questioning his ethics have already done considerable damage to his political standing. Alaska has not elected a Democratic senator for a generation. But even before Stevens was indicted, polls showed him trailing his Democratic opponent, Mayor Mark Begich of Anchorage.

Stevens's defeat would be a big notch in the belt of Democrats hoping to expand their party's slim 51-to-49 majority in the Senate. Some analysts wonder if Stevens will quit his bid for reelection rather than risk the loss of his seat to Democrats. Several Republicans are running against Stevens in the state's GOP primary Aug. 26. "If Stevens runs, the likelihood of him getting beaten in primary just went up 100 percent," said Jennifer Duffy, analyst of Senate elections for the nonpartisan Cook Political Report.

Reaction to the indictment yesterday was muted on Capitol Hill, where the Justice Department has been conducting of other corruption investigations. Senator Richard Durbin, an Illinois Democrat, the majority whip, described the mood among Democrats as "somber" and added that his caucus was thinking of Stevens and his family. "I believe in the presumption of innocence," Durbin added. "At this point we should just let the courts do their work."

Republicans largely avoided reporters. Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell, a Kansas Republican, appeared alone before reporters at a regular briefing usually attended by most of the GOP leadership. He appeared grim and spoke briefly on Stevens. "The Republican conference, like you, just heard of this news," McConnell said. "No doubt we'll have more to say about this later."

He turned his back on reporters' shouted questions and walked away.

Stevens is charged with seven counts of making false statements on his financial disclosure forms for calendar years 2001 to 2006. The Watergate-era Ethics in Government Act requires lawmakers to disclose gifts over a specific monetary amount as well as liabilities in excess of $10,000. The indictment alleges that, over a six-year period, Stevens failed to report the gifts from VECO, in exchange for which he "received and accepted solicitations for multiple official actions," including helping VECO obtain lucrative federal contracts.