CORRUPTION-TAINTED ALASKA SENATOR CONCEDES DEFEAT

20 Nov 2008 // ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AFP) — Alaska Senator Ted Stevens, the longest-serving Republican in US Senate history, conceded defeat in his re-election bid when voters turned against him after a graft scandal.

Steven's defeat at the hands of Anchorage Mayor Mark Begich brings the Democrats a step closer to winning a crucial filibuster-proof majority in the Senate as president-elect Barack Obama prepares to take the reins at the White House.

Begich, 46, claimed victory after tallies from the November 4 election showed the Democrat leading by 3,724 votes with only about 2,500 overseas ballots left to be counted.

Stevens, in a statement, said that "given the number of ballots that remain to be counted, it is apparent the election has been decided and Mayor Begich has been elected," thereby ending his four-decade-long career.

"It was a tough fight that would not have been possible without the help of so many Alaskans -- people who I am honored to call my friends," Stevens said.

Begich conceded that the razor thin victory margin showed many Alaskans found it hard even with the felony conviction to let go of "Uncle Ted," who steered huge amounts of funding to Alaska for state programs.

"They were having an emotional, tough time here with this change that's occuring," Begich said.

The result leaves Democrats with 58 seats, just two short of the number needed to make them immune to Republican attempts to block legislation with filibusters, a tactic involving long speeches to use up time.

Two more Senate races, in Minnesota and Georgia, are still to be decided.

Stevens, 85, was found guilty of corruption one week before the November 4 election.

He was on trial for making false statements on mandatory financial disclosure forms he filed between 1999 and 2006 concerning gifts he received from an oil-services firm.