Well, it looks like Sen. Ted Stevens (R-Alaska) may not make it back to the Senate after all. While things looked good after the election, the AP has now called the race for his Democratic opponent Mark Begich.

It would seem that getting his home remodeled by an oil services company then wildly underreporting the value of that remodel is not the only questionable thing Sen. Ted Stevens (R-AK) has been up to lately. Shocker, right? It appears that 'round about the time Stevens held his powerful post on the Senate Appropriations Committee a lobbying firm looking to win millions for their clients from the Committee went to work as fundraising consultants for Stevens.

I'm sorry to report that Alaska's Clean Elections ballot initiative did not pass yesterday -- in fact, on the primary ballot where both Sen. Ted Stevens (R) and Rep. Don Young (R) faced primary challenges none of the ballot initiatives got much love. But as they say, Rome wasn't built in a day. This is only the beginning of Alaska's fight for Clean Elections.

As Sen. Ted Stevens' (R-AK) trial date approaches the details of the case against him are slowly coming to light. He is alleged to have accepted gifts and services from VECO Corp. (like the expensive remodel of his home) in exchange for doing official favors for the company, then concealed the extent of those gifts. Stevens is set to stand trial in late September.

Will the indictment of Sen. Ted Stevens (R-AK) and the imprisonment of several Alaska state legislators in connection with Veco Corporation bribery scandal boost the number of voters who support the Clean Elections initiative on the ballot in Alaska this month? The author of this letter to the editor of the Fairbanks News-Miner thinks a full public financing program for state elections would help put these scandals in the past.

From Kaarle Strailey:

We've been following the many shady-sounding escapades of Alaska's long-serving Senator Ted Stevens (R) for some time now, right up to yesterday's 7-count indictment against Stevens for failing to properly disclose hundreds of thousands of dollars in gifts from oil services company Veco, the central corporation in the wide-ranging Alaska bribery investigation that has landed several state legislators in jail.

Senator Ted Stevens (R-AK), long the subject of a federal investigation into his ties to the oil services company VECO has been indicted on seven counts of making false statements on his Senate financial disclosure forms. The wide-ranging VECO bribery scandal has already landed several Alaska legislators in in jail, and a handful more are awaiting trial.

Quarterly fundraising reports for federal races were due Tuesday, so the next round of fundraising/fund-racing stories is coming out. Of particular interest, Sen. Ted Stevens (R-AK) continues to raise big bucks from the usual corporate interests, and Rep. William Jefferson (D-LA) hits up the members of his family who haven't been indicted for campaign cash.

Let's hope for Alaska State Sen. John Cowdery's (R) sake that former Rep. Vic Kohring was right about prison being a long vacation because Crowdery is the latest Alaska lawmaker to be indicted in the extensive VECO Corp. bribery scandal. Crowdery was indicted for conspiracy and bribery following revelations by Rick Smith, the CEO of VECO that he had bribed state lawmakers in exchange for legislation that would benefit the company.

Ray Metcalfe writes at the Alaska Report that the state is the victim of "institutionalized corruption" on the part of its legislators that has put money in the pockets of a few, at the expense of honest public servants. The Goodfellas poster mock-up is pretty funny.