Begich Expands Lead on Steven in Alaska Senate Race

Continuing their counting of ballots, the Alaska Division of Elections at 7:33 p.m. on November 12, 2008, reported that they had counted an additional 13,500 or so votes since their 3:30 p.m. vote report, in which Anchorage Mayor Mark Begich, the only Anchorage-born person to hold the post of Mayor of Anchorage, lead Senator Ted Stevens, the longest-serving Republican in the history of the U.S. Senate, by 3 votes.


Based in the additional votes counted since 3:30 p.m., Begich moved into an 814 vote lead over Sen. Ted Stevens - 132,196 to 131,382, with 35,000 or so ballots remaining to be counted over the coming week.

From the Alaska Division of Elections, here are the incomplete, updated results of the U.S. Senate race, as of 7:33 p.m. AKST this evening, November 12, 2008:

US SENATOR
		Total
Number of Precincts		438
Precincts Reporting		438	100.0 %
Times Counted		282383/495731	57.0 %
Total Votes		278837
Begich, Mark	DEM	132196	47.41%
Bird, Bob	AI	11315	4.06%
Gianoutsos, Ted	NA	1140	0.41%
Haase, Fredrick D.	LIB	2086	0.75%
Stevens, Ted	REP	131382	47.12%
Write-in Votes		718	0.26%

From the Anchorage Daily News:

The state Division of Elections tallied some 60,000 absentee, early and questioned ballots on Wednesday. The ballots broke heavily in the Democrat's favor, erasing the 3,000-vote lead Stevens held after election night Nov. 4.

***

The state still needs to count at least 15,000 questioned ballots and an estimated 20,000 absentee ballots that made it to the Division of Elections after election day last Tuesday.

Most regional elections headquarters will count their remaining ballots on Friday. But the most populous region, based in Anchorage, won't count its ballots until either Monday or Wednesday, state elections chief Gail Fenumiai said.

Begich pushed hard in the campaign for people to vote early, a factor both Democrats and Republicans said contributed to his surge. More than 9,000 of those early ballots weren't counted until Wednesday in order to give the state time to double check and make sure people didn't vote early and then come back and vote election day as well.

***

Republican Party of Alaska Chairman Randy Ruedrich wasn't giving up hope for Stevens, saying Begich's advantage could lessen as the state finishes counting the early votes.

"We expect that the subsequent absentees will be more truly by mail absentees, which should be much more favorable to Republicans," he said.

But state Democratic Party spokeswoman Bethany Lesser said Begich workers are "cautiously optimistic" the lead would hold.

She noted that the election district based in Nome, which covers northern and western Alaska, has not counted any of its absentee ballots yet. Begich beat Stevens in that area on election day, just as he did throughout Bush Alaska, a traditional Stevens stronghold that relies on federal appropriations.

***

But that was before the FBI and IRS raided (Stevens') Girdwood home and a Washington, D.C., jury found him guilty of lying on financial disclosure forms about $250,000 in gifts and home renovations from the oilfield services company Veco Corp.

Begich, whose grandfather emigrated to the U.S. from Croatia in 1911, is the son of Alaska's early representative in Congress, Congressman Nick Begich. Congressman Begich disappeared over Alaska in 1972 in a small, twin-engined Cessna in which he was traveling to a campaign event with the U.S. House Majority Leader, Hale Boggs, of Louisiana. Mark Begich was ten years old when his father (and Boggs) disappeared over Alaska, remains and wreckage never to be found.

(Congressman Begich was running for re-election against Don Young when he disappeared. Congressman Begich won that election posthumously; Don Young won the special election to fill out Begich's term, and Young has been re-elected to that seat every election since, apparently continuing that run this year against Ethan Berkowitz.)

(Ethan Berkowitz continues to trail Congressman Don Young in voting for Alaska's sole congressional seat; the vote margin remains at about 15,000 votes, representing an approximate 5.5% lead for Young, who had been tied to corruption allegations. Will this vote differential between the Senate and House races, after polling showing a strong lead for former Alaskan House Minority Berkowitz against Congressman Young someday be postulated as "the Berkowitz effect?")


Prior related post: Begich Takes 3-Vote Lead Over Stevens in Alaska Senate Balloting

(Minor edits 11/13/08 8:50 a.m. PST)

Photo: Mark Begich at Fairbanks, Alaska Labor Day Picnic; courtesy Wikipedia / Creative Commons.