Alaska

(Newser) - Sarah Palin may consider a 2010 Senate run as a stepping stone to a 2012 presidential bid—but the current occupant of said seat isn't about to make way for the GOP rock star. Fellow Republican and Alaska's newly senior senator Lisa Murkowski “can guarantee it would be a very tough election,” Politico reports. “I don’t think the way to the presidency is a short stop in the United States Senate,” she says. More »

(Newser) - In the Alaska senatorial race, Democrat Mark Begich has stretched his lead over GOP stalwart (and convicted felon) Ted Stevens to 1,022, with over 90% of votes counted, the Anchorage Daily News reports. Some 24,000 ballots remain to be tallied, but yesterday’s results, from typically pro-Stevens areas, were seen as the senator’s best hope to close the gap. The remaining votes will be counted Tuesday. More »

(Newser) - Democrat Mark Begich has taken the lead—by 814 votes—over Ted Stevens in the race for the Senate in Alaska, reports FiveThirtyEight.com. With about 40,000 absentee votes still to be counted, Begich leads 132,196  to 131,382. When the day began, Begich trailed by more than 3,000 votes. "Given where we expect the remaining votes are located, this looks very good for Begich," writes Sean Quinn of FiveThirtyEight. More »

(Newser) - Alaskan election workers will start tallying uncounted ballots tomorrow in the race for the Senate seat of Ted Stevens, expecting to get through half of them by the end of the day. The convicted but unrepentant Stevens still leads Anchorage Mayor Mark Begich by 3,257 votes, 106,594 to 103,337, the LA Times reports. But some 90,000 ballots, in this case representing almost 29% of votes cast, haven’t been counted. More »

(Newser) - Sarah Palin went back to work yesterday and blasted the wave of critical post-election stories from anonymous GOP sources that have appeared in the press, the Anchorage Daily News reports. The governor said stories that she had greedily grabbed pricey clothes were way off and she never asked for anything more than the occasional soda. More »

(Newser) - Alaska Sen. Ted Stevens' decision not to take the Fifth in his corruption trial was a bold gamble that backfired, the Hill writes. The Republican came across as "evasive and combative" under tough questioning on the stand, hurting his credibility and adding weight to the prosecution's argument that the senator had conspired to conceal free gifts from a company that stood to benefit from his clout. More »

(Newser) - After 5 hours of deliberations, a federal jury found Ted Stevens guilty today on all seven corruption counts against him. Coming just before Election Day, the felony convictions cloud the political future of the 84-year-old Republican, who has represented Alaska in the Senate since 1968. As the foreman read the verdict, Stevens slumped slightly, the Anchorage Daily News reports. He later told his wife, "It's not over yet." More »

(Newser) - Sarah Palin has accomplished a lot and has brought unexpected recognition to Alaska, but for the presidency, Barack Obama is "a clear choice" for the Anchorage Daily News . John McCain has abandoned his maverick positions to curry conservative favor, and the demands of the White House would "stretch the governor beyond her range," the paper says. More »

(Newser) - Deliberations in the corruption trial of Alaska Sen. Ted Stevens were halted again today when the judge sent the jury home following the death of a juror’s father, Politico reports. The juror flew to California, and it’s unknown whether she’ll return for deliberations. This latest delay pushes deliberations closer to Election Day, when Stevens’ name will be on the ballot. More »

(Newser) - Will America’s favorite moose-field-dressing expert draw more visitors to her wintry home state? Alaska’s sudden burst of Palin-centric publicity has some travel agents salivating, the Anchorage Daily News reports; every misty mountain vista that shows up on CNN is a win. But others worry that the increasingly controversial governor is hurting her state’s image. More »

(Newser) - Todd Palin and other aides were warned by state police officials that their push to have a state trooper fired could come back to haunt them, CNN reports. Deputy commissioner of public safety John Glass told a persistent Palin that the trooper had already been disciplined and "discomfort and embarrassment for the governor" could ensue if he  refused to cease and desist. More »

(Newser) - Sarah Palin, her husband and officials from the governor's office made dozens of phone calls to Palin's public safety commissioner and his aides denouncing state trooper Mike Wooten, the New York Times reports. Walt Monegan, whose firing Palin claims was unrelated to the matter, says the governor and her husband appeared obsessed with bouncing Palin's former brother-in-law off the force. More »

(Newser) - Todd Palin tried to convince several Alaska officials to support firing a trooper who was divorcing his sister-in-law, reports the Anchorage Daily News . But in a sworn statement, he denies interfering with his wife's job as governor and says he played no role in the firing of a safety commissioner who refused to ax the trooper. The governor and commissioner had a history of bad blood, including an erroneous complaint from the official that his wife failed to place their infant in a safety seat, said Palin. More »

(Newser) - State employees who had argued that Alaska’s legislature lacked the power to call on them have agreed to testify in the so-called Troopergate probe investigating Sarah Palin’s motives in firing the state’s public-safety commissioner, the Anchorage Daily News reports. A state judge ruled last week against the seven, including Palin’s chief of staff, saying the legislature’s actions were within its power. More »

(Newser) - An Alaska judge has refused to halt the Troopergate probe, declaring it a "legitimate" investigation, despite a Republican lawsuit against it, reports the Anchorage Daily News . The judge upheld subpoenas against Sarah Palin's husband and several aides. Five Republican state legislators had filed a lawsuit claiming that the investigation into the firing of a state commissioner was tainted by partisanship and was being used to damage Palin's election chances. More »

(Newser) - A federal judge sent the jury in Ted Stevens’ Washington corruption trial home today as he considers declaring a mistrial for the Alaska senator, the AP reports. Stevens’ lawyers claimed that prosecutors attempted to withhold FBI reports about the government’s key witness, former oil exec Bill Allen, that they say would’ve helped their defense. More »