Ted Stevens, the senior U.S. Senator from Alaska who vowed to resign if his “Bridge to Nowhere” earmark wasn’t funded, is now a convicted felon, less than a week before the election in which he seeks an eighth term. That puts Alaska voters in a terrible bind. He can make it right by announcing as soon as possible that, if he wins Tuesday’s election, he will resign from office by a “date certain” shortly after the ballots are counted.
This is confusing, to be sure, but here is the essential background: Convicted on Monday on seven counts of lying on financial disclosure forms, Stevens has made himself unfit for office by committing transgressions that weren’t mere bookkeeping errors. He took what the Anchorage Daily News called “a steady stream of gifts and home improvements” from a man the newspaper described as “a well-known bad actor in Alaska politics long before Ted Stevens collected his first unreported gift from him.”
Whenever Stevens leaves the Senate, the rest of the country will be well-rid of his heavy-handed, pork-barreling ways. But Alaskans could be deprived of a voice in Washington – without any reasonable chance to choose for themselves between two unsullied replacements. If Stevens vows to stay on if he wins, Alaska’s voters will wind up with a convicted Republican who will be distracted by his court battles, or a Democrat – Anchorage Mayor Mark Begich – who may not be philosophically in line with them. Alaskans deserve a clean decision between Begich (or another Democrat) and a Republican without the baggage of a felony corruption conviction.
Alaska law requires that a Senate vacancy from the state be filled by special election within 60-90 days. Stevens could provide his constituents a clean vote with an announcement like this: “In light of my conviction, I can no longer give my full energies to the job, even if re-elected. If you want Mr. Begich as your senator, vote for him. But if you want a choice, vote for me. I will be serving only as a stand-in for the opportunity for another, fair decision. If I am re-elected, I will resign – in consultation with state election officials – within two weeks of the election. You then would have another chance to vote, in short order, this time between two people who could give the job their full attention.”
It’s the least Stevens can do for a state he has disgraced.
