Stevens fallout may hit GOP

WASHINGTON – The indictment of Sen. Ted Stevens, R-Alaska, on corruption charges Tuesday 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 for concealing 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, as well as other gifts including a gas grill and a new Land Rover, from VECO Corp., an oil-field services company.

‘I am innocent’

“It saddens me to learn that these charges have been brought against me,” Stevens said in a prepared 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, D.C., watchdog group, Stevens sponsored a total of 1,452 pork-barrel projects worth $3.4 billion from 1995 to 2008, making Alaska the No. 1 state in pork per capita every year since 1999.

Already running behind

The indictment casts a shadow over Stevens’ political future. He is up for re-election 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, Anchorage Mayor Mark Begich.

Stevens’ defeat would be a big notch in the belt of Democrats hoping to expand their party’s slim 51-49 majority in the Senate. Some analysts wonder if Stevens will quit his bid for re-election 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 Tuesday was muted on Capitol Hill, where the Justice Department has been conducting a number of other corruption investigations.

Sen. Richard Durbin, D-Ill., the Senate’s 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, R-Kan., 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.

False statements alleged

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 and providing “assistance” with company ventures in Pakistan and Russia.

The indictment does not accuse him of the more serious crime of bribery. Legal experts said that may have reflected difficulty that prosecutors had in identifying specific legislative favors that Stevens performed for VECO. Bribery law requires that there be an identifiable exchange, known as a quid pro quo, between a thing of value and an official act.

The charges culminate a multi-year influence-peddling investigation that has led to the convictions of several Alaska state officials and the chief executive of VECO, Bill J. Allen, who last year admitted that he made more than $400,000 in payments to government officials. Stevens’ son, Ben, a former president of the Alaska state Senate, remains under federal investigation, as does Stevens’ congressional colleague, Rep. Don Young, a Republican.

The indictment focuses on improvements to Stevens’ home in Girdwood, Alaska.

Several other past and present Republican members of Congress remain under investigation by Justice Department anti-corruption lawyers. Some political observers believe bringing charges in an election year could sway some voters.

At a news conference where the indictment of Stevens was announced, Matthew Friedrich, the acting chief of the department’s criminal division, said the election would not affect the timing or decision to bring any additional charges.

“When we bring cases as prosecutors, we bring cases based upon our evaluation of the facts and the law, and we bring cases when they are ready to be charged, and … that’s what has happened here,” he said.