Alaska’s Senate race

Electoral-vote.com gives the latest on Alaska’s Senatorial election.

First off, looks like Alaska and the Republicans won’t be embarrassed by a convicted felon being returned to office.

With all but 2500 votes counted, Anchorage mayor Mark Begich (D) now has an insurmountable lead of 3724 votes over convicted Sen. Ted. Stevens (R-AK), ending Stevens career as the longest serving Republican senator in history. The remaining votes, which come from overseas voters and igloos so far north that they don’t have polling places, will be counted next week before the tally is finalized.

Begich claimed victory yesterday evening; Stevens has not yet conceded. A recount is possible, but Alaska uses optical scan machines and previous recounts have not changed the results much. Begich’s victory brings the number of Democrats in the new Senate to 58, with races in Minnesota and Georgia still undecided.

The delta is high enough that if a recall is requested by Stevens, he’ll have to pay for it.

Interestingly, Stevens may have been torpedoed by a third party candidate — Bob Bird, who ran for the Alaska Independence Party and got over 12,000 votes, presumably from Stevens. But there may be some chicken-and-egg here — did Stevens lose because Bird took his votes, or did folks disgusted with Stevens but unwilling to vote for a Democrat shift their vote “safely” to Bird in protest?

An interesting note on Begich — he’ll be the only member of the Senate without a college degree.