Alaska’s Stevens running for Senate re-election

ANCHORAGE, Alaska – High energy prices and a lack of jobs are choking the Alaska economy outside Anchorage and Fairbanks, U.S. Sen. Ted Stevens said Thursday, and he intends to do something about it.

Stevens, the longest-serving Republican in Senate history, filed for re-election with a familiar campaign message that Alaska must develop its natural resources. With a 40 percent dropout rate in many Alaska high schools, he said, the state’s youth need hope for employment. “I’m going to work to get them jobs,” he said.

Stevens, 84, filed while under the cloud of a federal investigation. Federal authorities are investigating the senator’s ties to a corrupt oil services contractor who helped remodel Stevens’ official residence in Girdwood. Stevens has not been charged, and has said he paid all bills presented to him.

He answered questions from reporters Thursday but maintained a policy of not discussing pending investigations.

When asked about the effect of the federal investigation on his campaign or his fitness for office, Stevens maintained his reticence by recounting his legal career as a prosecutor, Interior Department attorney and senator.

“I’m telling you as a lawyer that if you were in my place, you’d do exactly what I’m doing, and that is, listen to the people who are advising you, and listen to the people who have been through this before, and don’t complicate this issue with trying to say something that could be misunderstood,” he said. “And if it was misunderstood, you suddenly find yourself charged with obstruction of justice.”

The 2008 campaign, he said, will be more divided and more partisan, with issues that are more complicated. But unlike the rest of the country, which has seen job growth, Alaska’s development has been stymied by extreme environmentalists, he said.