Thanks to the wisdom of Alaska’s voters, our second term-limits poster boy and convicted felon Ted Stevens will apparently be returning to the senate to start this fall’s lame-duck session. Stevens has held the office since 1968, making him the 7th longest-serving senator at the moment.
One can only guess at what the state’s voters were thinking. Hopefully they were looking ahead to Stevens’ likely departure – which is likely to happen soon with fellow Republican Jim DeMint pushing for his expulsion – and voting to ensure a Republican replacement.
Then again, perhaps Stevens’ survival is not the voters’ fault at all. Despite excellent voter turnout in the rest of the nation and Sarah Palin’s presence on the ticket, voting numbers are actually down in Alaska for 2008, strange as it may seem.