Salon.com > Ted Stevens http://www.salon.com Sun, 27 May 2012 13:20:45 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.2.1 Prosecutor in Ted Stevens case commits suicide http://www.salon.com/2010/09/27/stevens_prosecutor_suicide/ http://www.salon.com/2010/09/27/stevens_prosecutor_suicide/#comments Mon, 27 Sep 2010 22:39:00 +0000 http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2010/09/27/stevens_prosecutor_suicide A Justice Department prosecutor killed himself while under investigation over whether he and other attorneys in the prosecution of Sen. Ted Stevens acted improperly in the case, officials said.

Nicholas A. Marsh, 37, committed suicide on Sunday, two years after being part of the Justice Department team that convicted Stevens on corruption charges that were eventually thrown out. Marsh's suicide was confirmed by his lawyer, Robert Luskin.

"I think Nick loved being a prosecutor and I think he was incredibly fearful that this would prevent him from continuing to work for the Justice Department," Luskin said Monday. "It's incredibly tragic after all this time when we were on the verge of a successful resolution."

The prosecutors in the Stevens case failed to disclose evidence favorable to the defendant as Supreme Court precedent requires. The omission was so serious that Attorney General Eric Holder stepped in and asked a federal judge to throw out Stevens' convictions, which the judge did.

Stevens, a longtime Republican senator from Alaska, lost his Senate seat in an election shortly after his October 2008 conviction. He died in a plane crash last August.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2010/09/27/stevens_prosecutor_suicide/feed/ 6 Ex-NASA chief, son survive Alaska plane crash http://www.salon.com/2010/08/10/us_alaska_plane_crash_0_keefe/ http://www.salon.com/2010/08/10/us_alaska_plane_crash_0_keefe/#comments Tue, 10 Aug 2010 20:07:00 +0000 http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2010/08/10/us_alaska_plane_crash_0_keefe A former NASA spokesman says ex-NASA chief Sean O'Keefe survived the plane crash in Alaska that killed former Sen. Ted Stevens.

Glenn Mahone (Muh-HOHN') says O'Keefe's teenage son, Kevin, was also among the four survivors.

The plane crashed Monday night near a remote fishing village in Alaska, killing five.

The former spokesman for the space agency says he has talked to O'Keefe's family. They told him that O'Keefe and his son had some broken bones and other injuries.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2010/08/10/us_alaska_plane_crash_0_keefe/feed/ 2 Unfortunate contextual advertising watch, Ted Stevens edition http://www.salon.com/2010/08/10/ted_stevens_contextual_ad/ http://www.salon.com/2010/08/10/ted_stevens_contextual_ad/#comments Tue, 10 Aug 2010 17:01:00 +0000 http://www.salon.com/news/politics//war_room/2010/08/10/ted_stevens_contextual_ad

The automatically generated advertisements on the Huffington Post's story on the deadly plane crash that reportedly claimed the life of former Senator Ted Stevens are all for radio controlled airplanes. Because, you know, if you're reading about this, you are probably an airplane enthusiast.

(I know no humans are directly responsible for this sort of thing, but at this point the internet advertisemement robots should be taught not to place airplane ads on plane crash stories.)

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2010/08/10/ted_stevens_contextual_ad/feed/ 16 Ted Stevens killed in plane crash http://www.salon.com/2010/08/10/ted_stevens_plane_crash/ http://www.salon.com/2010/08/10/ted_stevens_plane_crash/#comments Tue, 10 Aug 2010 15:01:00 +0000 http://www.salon.com/news/politics//war_room/2010/08/10/ted_stevens_plane_crash [Update: Alaska NBC affiliate KTUU reports that former Ted Stevens is among those killed in the plane crash near Dillingham last night, according to his former aide and longtime friend Dave Dittman. The conditions of the survivors and the names of the others who died are still not known.]

[Update 2: Reuters reports that Dittman has released a second statement saying that Stevens death "has not been confirmed."]

[Update 3: The Associated Press has confirmed that Stevens was killed. The status of O'Keefe is still unknown.]

Former U.S. Senator Ted Stevens and former NASA administrator Sean O'Keefe were both in a deadly plane crash near Dillingham, Alaska last night. Officials so far will not confirm if Stevens and/or O'Keefe are among the five dead (out of eight passengers).

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2010/08/10/ted_stevens_plane_crash/feed/ 33 Official: Stevens believed aboard crashed airplane http://www.salon.com/2010/08/10/us_alaska_plane_crash_stevens/ http://www.salon.com/2010/08/10/us_alaska_plane_crash_stevens/#comments Tue, 10 Aug 2010 13:46:00 +0000 http://www.salon.com/news/2010/08/10/us_alaska_plane_crash_stevens A U.S. government official says former Sen. Ted Stevens is believed to have been aboard the airplane that has crashed in Alaska.

The official tells The Associated Press Alaska authorities have been told the former longtime Republican senator is among several passengers on the plane. The official, who spoke on grounds of anonymity, says Stevens' condition is unknown.

A National Transportation Safety Board investigative team has been dispatched from Washington, D.C., and was expected on the ground Tuesday morning.

The federal official declined to be publicly identified because the crash response and investigation are under way. The Alaska National Guard has said there are possible fatalities.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2010/08/10/us_alaska_plane_crash_stevens/feed/ 0 DOJ asks judge to set aside Stevens’ conviction http://www.salon.com/2009/04/01/stevens_5/ http://www.salon.com/2009/04/01/stevens_5/#comments Wed, 01 Apr 2009 14:00:00 +0000 http://www.salon.com/news/politics//war_room/2009/04/01/stevens Former Sen. Ted Stevens, R-Alaska, may have lost his race for reelection, and he may have lost his criminal trial, but there is at least one bright point for him now: He won't have a criminal conviction on his record.

The Department of Justice has asked a judge to toss Stevens' conviction and grant him a new trial, and at the same time has notified the judge that it will not actually seek the new trial. Instead, it's moving to dismiss the indictment against the former senator "with prejudice," meaning the charges can't ever be brought again.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2009/04/01/stevens_5/feed/ 34 Ted Stevens concedes http://www.salon.com/2008/11/19/stevens_concession/ http://www.salon.com/2008/11/19/stevens_concession/#comments Wed, 19 Nov 2008 20:40:00 +0000 http://www.salon.com/news/politics//war_room/2008/11/19/stevens_concession As of this post, it's been about nineteen hours since the Associated Press called the Alaska Senate race for Democrat Mark Begich, and we’ve heard not a peep from Sen. Ted Stevens. No defiant demand for a recount, no resigned statement about looking forward to private life -- no concession.

Hoping to get some word on the Senator's plans, Salon e-mailed a Stevens campaign spokesman. He has not yet responded.

Update: About ten minutes after this post was published, Stevens conceded. A Stevens aide e-mailed reporters this statement:

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2008/11/19/stevens_concession/feed/ 12 Stevens expulsion vote pushed back http://www.salon.com/2008/11/18/stevens_4/ http://www.salon.com/2008/11/18/stevens_4/#comments Tue, 18 Nov 2008 16:04:00 +0000 http://www.salon.com/news/politics//war_room/2008/11/18/stevens Senate Republicans have decided to hold off on voting to expel Alaska Sen. Ted Stevens from their conference, at least for the moment.

South Carolina's Jim DeMint has been leading the charge against Stevens, who was convicted on federal corruption charges last month. He says he has the votes for expulsion, but that the timing is not right since the race between Stevens and Democrat Mark Begich has still not been decided.

"After talking with many of my colleagues, it's clear there are sufficient votes to pass the resolution regarding Senator Stevens," DeMint said in a statement. "The question now is timing. Some who support the resolution believe we should address this after the results of his election are confirmed in Alaska. For this reason, I will ask the Conference to postpone the vote on Senator Stevens until Thursday."

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2008/11/18/stevens_4/feed/ 5 Palin doesn’t rule out Senate run http://www.salon.com/2008/11/14/palin_senate_2/ http://www.salon.com/2008/11/14/palin_senate_2/#comments Fri, 14 Nov 2008 23:00:00 +0000 http://www.salon.com/news/politics//war_room/2008/11/14/palin_senate No one could ever accuse Sarah Palin of letting opportunities pass her by. In interviews with CNN this week, Palin said she'd leave her post as governor of Alaska to serve as one of the state's U.S. senators if she was given the chance. Palin said that if the Alaskan voters "call an audible" on her "and if they say they want me in another position, I'm going to do it...My life is in God's hands. If he's got doors open for me, that I believe are in our state's best interest, the nation's best interest, I'm going to go through those doors."

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2008/11/14/palin_senate_2/feed/ 55 Stevens’ prospects dim; can Dems get 60? http://www.salon.com/2008/11/14/senate_2/ http://www.salon.com/2008/11/14/senate_2/#comments Fri, 14 Nov 2008 20:09:00 +0000 http://www.salon.com/news/politics//war_room/2008/11/14/senate In an article published Friday, the Anchorage Daily News' Sean Cockerham takes a look at Sen. Ted Stevens' prospects for making up ground in his re-election and concludes that they're not good.

"More than half the absentee and questioned ballots still to be counted in Alaska's U.S. Senate race come from areas of the state that backed Democrat Mark Begich on Election Day," Cockerham writes. "That's not a good sign for Republican Sen. Ted Stevens as he seeks to overcome Begich's 814-vote lead when counting resumes today of just over 41,000 remaining ballots. A Daily News analysis, based on data provided by the state Division of Elections, shows that 56 percent of those ballots come from districts that favored Begich on Nov. 4."

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2008/11/14/senate_2/feed/ 11 Quote of the day http://www.salon.com/2008/11/14/chambliss_stevens/ http://www.salon.com/2008/11/14/chambliss_stevens/#comments Fri, 14 Nov 2008 16:50:00 +0000 http://www.salon.com/news/politics//war_room/2008/11/14/chambliss_stevens Sen. Saxby Chambliss (R-Ga.) is facing a run-off election against Democratic challenger Jim Martin. But he's still finding time to weigh in on the undecided Senate race between Alaska Republican Ted Stevens and Democrat Mark Begich. Here's Chambliss' stance on Stevens (hat tip to Taegan Goddard):

First of all, I hope Senator Stevens is successful in being re-elected. And assuming that he is, I intend to support any motion to remove him.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2008/11/14/chambliss_stevens/feed/ 21 Begich takes lead over Stevens http://www.salon.com/2008/11/13/begich_stevens/ http://www.salon.com/2008/11/13/begich_stevens/#comments Thu, 13 Nov 2008 15:08:00 +0000 http://www.salon.com/news/politics//war_room/2008/11/13/begich_stevens After 60,000 votes were tallied on Wednesday, Democrat Mark Begich now holds a slim lead over incumbent Alaska Sen. Ted Stevens.

After Election Day, Stevens had led by around 3,000 votes. Now, he trails Begich by 814. The actual tally is 132,196 to 131,382. About 40,000 ballots remain to be counted, according to the Anchorage Daily News.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2008/11/13/begich_stevens/feed/ 12 Salon’s rash predictions on the election http://www.salon.com/2008/11/12/predictions_6/ http://www.salon.com/2008/11/12/predictions_6/#comments Wed, 12 Nov 2008 17:07:00 +0000 http://www.salon.com/news/politics//war_room/2008/11/12/predictions We're tired of waiting for pesky local election officials to count the last few votes in the handful of congressional races that have not yet been officially decided. Because it's fun, and because we're not betting real money, we're going to pick the winners ourselves. If we're right, the final totals will be eight new Democrats in the Senate and a net Democratic gain of 24 seats in the House. That gives the Democrats a caucus of 59 in the Senate (57 Democrats plus independents Bernie Sanders and, um, Joe Lieberman), one short of a filibuster-proof majority. Here's how we did the math.

Senate

Alaska
Incumbent Republican senator-for-life and convicted felon Ted Stevens leads Democratic challenger Mark Begich by about 3,200 votes. Fully 30 percent of Alaska's total votes, however, in the form of 90,000 early and absentee ballots, remain uncounted. The counting begins at noon Alaska time Wednesday. Analyst Nate Silver of FiveThirtyEight.com says that since the vast majority of votes left to be counted are early and absentee, that should favor the Democrat. Since Silver is always right, we believe him.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2008/11/12/predictions_6/feed/ 14 Sarah Palin, Alaska’s next senator? http://www.salon.com/2008/11/11/palin_senate/ http://www.salon.com/2008/11/11/palin_senate/#comments Tue, 11 Nov 2008 22:55:00 +0000 http://www.salon.com/news/politics//war_room/2008/11/11/palin_senate A huge number of votes in Alaska remain uncounted, and in the balance is the Senate seat of Sen. Ted Stevens, convicted felon. According to Nate Silver, there's a decent chance that challenger Mark Begich will manage to erase the margin of 3,200 votes once the counting, which begins Wednesday, is done. But what happens if he doesn't?

There appears to be a consensus that Stevens will not, under any circumstances, serve out his term. Even conservative senators are urging their colleagues to get ready to expel Stevens, and Republican leader Mitch McConnell said there is "zero chance" he'll avoid that fate. Those seem like pretty good indicators that the necessary 67 votes are there to expel Stevens.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2008/11/11/palin_senate/feed/ 30 DeMint pushes for Stevens’ expulsion http://www.salon.com/2008/11/07/demint_stevens/ http://www.salon.com/2008/11/07/demint_stevens/#comments Fri, 07 Nov 2008 19:15:00 +0000 http://www.salon.com/news/politics//war_room/2008/11/07/demint_stevens Add Alaska Sen. Ted Stevens to the list of people fellow Sen. Jim DeMint, R-S.C., will not tolerate. DeMint, who openly opposes allowing homosexuals or single mothers to teach in public schools and also wants to strip federal funding from Berkeley, Calif., reportedly now wants Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell to expel Stevens from the Senate in the near future.

On Oct. 27, a jury found Stevens guilty of seven felony counts, meaning the eldery senator could face up to five years in prison. According to an article in Politico Friday, DeMint is angry because McConnell is allowing a convicted felon to remain in the GOP Senate caucus. Last week, McConnell called on Stevens to resign and said there was "zero chance" Stevens wouldn't be expelled if he decided to refuse resignation, but the minority leader has also pledged to allow Stevens time to appeal the conviction. DeMint, whom the National Journal ranks as the Senate's most conservative member, wants the expulsion to happen during a "lame duck" Senate session later this month.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2008/11/07/demint_stevens/feed/ 18 A Bradley effect for felons? http://www.salon.com/2008/11/05/stevens_effect/ http://www.salon.com/2008/11/05/stevens_effect/#comments Wed, 05 Nov 2008 22:50:00 +0000 http://www.salon.com/news/politics//war_room/2008/11/05/stevens_effect Something smells fishy in Alaska, and it's not the salmon. Sen. Ted Stevens appears to be headed to reelection (pending 40,000 uncounted absentee ballots), despite his conviction on seven counts of violating federal ethics laws.

Stevens was widely thought to have little chance of winning. FiveThirtyEight.com's Nate Silver had rated the race as "safe Democratic," and projected a victory of 11.3 points for challenger Mark Begich.

Stevens is a titan of Alaskan politics, the state's iconic public figure. The Anchorage airport is named after him, and it's not uncommon to hear him referred to as "Uncle Ted." People have a soft spot for the guy. So, a candidate who voters might be embarrassed to admit they're supporting for emotional reasons turns in an unexpectedly strong performance. That seems like a familiar story.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2008/11/05/stevens_effect/feed/ 26 Sen. Ted Stevens guilty on all counts http://www.salon.com/2008/10/27/stevens_guilty/ http://www.salon.com/2008/10/27/stevens_guilty/#comments Mon, 27 Oct 2008 20:25:00 +0000 http://www.salon.com/news/politics//war_room/2008/10/27/stevens_guilty

Reuters/Kevin Lamarque

Alaska Republican Sen. Ted Stevens

The jury in the corruption trial of Republican Sen. Ted Stevens of Alaska came back Monday afternoon with a verdict that could well send Stevens' career down the tubes. Stevens was found guilty on all seven of the charges he faced, felonies relating to false statements he made on Senate financial disclosure forms, on which he failed to report some $250,000 in gifts.

Stevens faces up to five years in prison on each of the counts, but the AP says he "will likely receive much less prison time, if any."

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2008/10/27/stevens_guilty/feed/ 46 Mean girl http://www.salon.com/2008/09/23/palin_15/ http://www.salon.com/2008/09/23/palin_15/#comments Tue, 23 Sep 2008 11:01:00 +0000 http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2008/09/23/palin Before Sarah Palin decided to run for the Wasilla mayor's office in 1996 against incumbent John Stein, the Palins and Steins were friends. John Stein had helped launch Palin's political career, mentoring the hockey mom during her 1994 run for City Council, along with veteran council member Nick Carney. Stein's wife, Karen Marie, went to aerobics classes with Palin.

But when she announced her candidacy for Stein's seat, vowing to overturn the city's "old boy" establishment, a different Sarah Palin emerged. "Things got very ugly," recalled Naomi Tigner, a friend of the Steins. "Sarah became very mean-spirited."

The Wasilla mayor's seat is nonpartisan, and Mayor Stein, a former city planner who had held the post for nine years, ran a businesslike campaign that stressed his experience and competency. But Palin ignited the traditionally low-key race with scorching social issues, injecting "God, guns and abortion into the race -- things that had nothing to do with being mayor of a small town," according to Tigner.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2008/09/23/palin_15/feed/ 272 Sen. Ted Stevens is indicted on seven counts http://www.salon.com/2008/07/29/stevens_indicted/ http://www.salon.com/2008/07/29/stevens_indicted/#comments Tue, 29 Jul 2008 18:05:00 +0000 http://www.salon.com/news/politics//war_room/2008/07/29/stevens_indicted Things just got a whole lot worse for Alaska Sen. Ted Stevens, the longest-serving Republican senator ever.

Already facing a tough road to reelection this fall, at 1:20 p.m. EDT the Department of Justice is holding a press conference to announce a seven-count indictment against Stevens for transgressions related to the "holding of public office." Two weeks ago, during a Salon conversation I moderated with three expert electoral handicappers to forecast the upcoming 2008 Senate races, the Hotline’s Amy Walter pegged Stevens as the Senate incumbent, of either party, most likely to lose this fall. Some have New Hampshire Sen. John Sununu ranked more likely, but Sununu is in a Democratic-trending state. For Stevens to be in hot water in Alaska, you know things are bad. And the temp is rising.

According to acting assistant attorney general Matthrew Friedrich, speaking live on television now, a grand jury filed "seven felony counts of making false statements … on his mandatory financial disclosure forms between 1999 and 2006."

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2008/07/29/stevens_indicted/feed/ 27 FBI recorded Stevens’ calls http://www.salon.com/2007/09/21/stevens_2/ http://www.salon.com/2007/09/21/stevens_2/#comments Fri, 21 Sep 2007 11:47:00 +0000 http://www.salon.com/news/politics//war_room/2007/09/21/stevens As we wait to see whether Sen. Larry Craig actually resigns come Sept. 30, it's probably time to start watching for another shoe to drop. This one belongs to Sen. Ted Stevens, the Alaska Republican whose dealings with an oil field services contractor has him under the scrutiny of federal investigators.

The latest this-can't-be-good-news development: Sources close to the investigation tell the Associated Press that the FBI has secretly recorded telephone calls between Stevens and Bill Allen, the owner of the oil field services company, who has already pleaded guilty to bribery charges and is working with investigators now.

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