Yesterday Gary Tuchman blogged about his quest to get the first television interview with Senator Ted Stevens since his felony convictions. Here is the video from that meeting and Gary’s report on Senator Ted Stevens’ campaign.
Wondering how Sen. Ted Stevens is doing in his reelection bid? Track the election results for his senate race here.
Gary Tuchman | BIO
AC360° Correspondent
Senator Ted Stevens has never been known as a big fan of the news media. So we knew getting him to talk to us on camera following seven felony guilty verdicts against him would be a bit challenging. He hadn’t done a TV interview since the verdicts. Ultimately, he did do an interview with us. But making that happen took us on an unusual journey.
On Sunday, we went to interview his Democratic opponent in the Senate race, Anchorage Mayor Mark Begich. The mayor was at a candidate forum in the entry way of a large Baptist church that was full of candidate posters, pamphlets, and balloons. As we were getting ready to greet Begich, we saw to our surprise that Senator Stevens was also shaking hands about 30 feet away from his opponent.
I came up to the 40-year Senate veteran, introduced myself, and asked him on camera if he was angry about the guilty verdicts. He told me “not that angry. I’m angry at you guys ’cause I’m trying to visit with friends; I just see them once or twice a year.” I then mentioned because he was campaigning we wanted to see if he would talk, and he objected since we were doing this in a church. I mentioned to him that there was some lively campaigning going on in this entry way, but that didn’t seem to matter to him.
Gary Tuchman approaching Sen. Ted Stevens in the Baptist church.
John McCain and Sarah Palin on Tuesday called on Sen. Ted Stevens, R-Alaska, to resign, a day after the veteran Alaska lawmaker was convicted on federal corruption charges.
Other Republican senators followed suit, as did Sen. Barack Obama, the Democratic candidate for president.
“Stevens has broken his trust with the people and … he should now step down,” McCain said in a statement issued by his campaign Tuesday morning.
Palin said the time had come “for him to step aside.”
“Even if elected on Tuesday, Sen. Stevens should step aside to allow a special election to give Alaskans a real choice of who will serve them in Congress,” Palin said in a written statement.
Stevens, the longest-serving Republican in the Senate, insists he is innocent and will continue to run for a seventh full term as he fights his conviction in court.
He was convicted Monday on seven counts of failing to disclose hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of gifts and free work on his home in Alaska.
Watch Jami Floyd’s commentary on Sen. Ted Stevens’ felony convictions. Should end his reelection bid?
You can also read this and other commentaries from Jami Floyd on the In Session blog.
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