Exactly one year ago this week, agents from the FBI and the IRS raided Sen. Ted Stevens’ (R) home in Alaska — the first ever such raid on a sitting senator’s home — as “part of a broad federal investigation of political corruption in the state that has also swept up his son and one of his closest financial backers.” It was a sign that Stevens’ future looked rather bleak.
Today, the other shoe fell — Stevens has been indicted.
Sen. Ted Stevens, the longest-serving Republican in the U.S. Senate and one of the chamber’s most powerful members, was indicted Tuesday in Washington, a result of a year-long investigation into corruption in Alaska politics.
The indictment comes nearly one year after federal agents raided Stevens’ home in Girdwood, a resort town about 40 miles south of Anchorage.
Looks like the senator best known for his “bridge to nowhere” may be heading down the bridge to jail.
To be sure, everyone deserves the presumption of innocence, but the details of this scandal look really bad for Stevens. The central focus of all of this stems from Veco Corp., an oil-services company, which generously remodeled Ted Stevens’ house in an exclusive ski resort area, adding an additional floor to the home. After the lavish renovation was complete, Stevens steered $170 million in contracts to Veco, which, wouldn’t you know it, looked suspicious to the FBI.
Complicating matters, Stevens has simultaneously been under investigation for “a series of earmarks pushed through Congress over the past several years by Stevens for an Alaska nonprofit tied to Trevor McCabe, a former Stevens aide and a business partner of his son, Ben, sources familiar with the investigation said.”
So, what happens next?
Ted Stevens is, of course, up for re-election this year, and recent polls show him trailing Anchorage Mayor Mark Begich (D). Conceivably, the Alaska GOP could try to force Stevens from the ballot, but it’s more likely that he’ll continue to seek the Republican nomination — he’s facing a couple of largely-unknown GOP challengers in a primary scheduled for Aug. 26.
In the Senate, Republican leaders will no doubt face some pressure to deal with Stevens immediately, though it’s unsure what, if any, actions the caucus would take. In the short term, though, we know that Stevens will no longer be able to serve as the ranking member of the Senate Commerce Committee (caucus rules prohibit an indicted member from serving as either chairman or ranking member of a committee).
Should Stevens resign, Alaska’s governor is a Republican, who would no doubt appoint another Republican to fill the seat.)
For more on Stevens’ extensive and humiliating scandals, I’d encourage folks to check out TPMM’s overview, and the “Retire Ted” site created by the Alaska Democratic Party.
As for the big picture, I think it’s fair to say the Republicans’ Culture of Corruption hasn’t been front-page news for a while, but it hasn’t gone away, either.