from The Nation:
Stevens Indictment Comes Earlier Than Dems Hopedposted by John Nichols on 07/29/2008 @ 4:07pm
Voters should know whether incumbent senators are in serious trouble with the law before election day.
It helps to shape the decision-making process.
Indeed, as Larry Sabato, director of the University of Virginia's Center for Politics, says of the election-year indictment of an incumbent senator like Alaska Republican Ted Stevens: "It really does affect the likelihood of re-election."
Unfortunately for Democrats who have been salivating at the prospect that they might grab an Alaska's Senate seat from a wounded Stevens this fall, Tuesday's indictment of the incumbent by a federal grand jury in Washington on seven counts of filing false financial disclosures may have come before wrong election.
Alaska is a Republican-leaning state -- even weak Republicans, such as appointed Senator Lisa Murkowski in 2004, have survived serious challenges. (No Democrat has won a Senate race in Alaska since 1974, when the Watergate scandal was credited with pulling a first-term senator named Mike Gravel through.)
This year, however, Democrats were feeling very good about the prospects of Anchorage Mayor Mark Begich, the scion of a family with deep roots in the state's politics, in a November race against the longest Republican in the Senate. The last poll completed before Tuesday's indictment had Begich winning a November race against Stevens 50 percent to 41 percent. .....(more)
The complete piece is at:
http://www.thenation.com/blogs/campaignmatters/340474