New Senate Election in Alaska?

In a New York Times article dated April 3, 2009, Republicans in Alaska are outraged at the Justice Department due to apparent mishandling of the prosecution of former Senator Ted Stevens. Alaskans are claiming that they have been “robbed of 40 years of seniority in the U.S. Senate.” Randy Reudrich, the Republican Party chairman, is asking for a special election, as the Justice Department has dropped all charges against Stevens.

Stevens has been Senator since 1968 and was the longest-serving Republican in history. Stevens replacement, Mark Begich, is a Democrat that won by less than 4,000 votes against Stevens. Now that the charges are being dropped against Stevens, Begich has no intentions of stepping down. Begich’s election increased the Democrats’ majority in the Senate. Now, Democrats are two votes away from the 60 needed to overcome a filibuster.

I feel that Stevens has been done very wrong. No matter what happens now, his name will be associated with “corrupt politics”, even if he is innocent. He has also been wrongly replaced in the Senate.