Ted Stevens Exited Senate Under Ethics Cloud

(Aug. 10) -- Former Alaska Sen. Ted Stevens, who had been the longest-serving Republican senator when he lost re-election in 2008, was killed when the small plane that was carrying him crashed Monday in his home state near Dillingham. He was 86.

Stevens, a moderate Republican, was in the Senate for 40 years, making him the longest-serving GOP senator in history. He grew into a dominant political force for Alaska, serving as chairman of the Appropriations Committee, and was known for steering billions in federal dollars to his home state. A powerful Republican, he was said to be gruff and short-tempered.

His clout, though, was undercut by corruption charges. In October 2008, Stevens was convicted of seven ethics violations for failing to report $250,000 in goods and services. The case involved efforts to upgrade his modest home in Girdwood, Alaska, and he lost re-election to Democrat Mark Begich a week later in a close race.

But in April 2009, a federal judge dismissed the conviction, saying that prosecutors had improperly withheld evidence.

Stevens said the dismissal reaffirmed his belief in the justice system.

"Until recently, my faith in the criminal justice system was unwavering," Stevens read in a statement to the court. "But what some members of this prosecution team did nearly destroyed my faith. Their conduct has consequences they must know can never be reversed.

"But [I now have] new hope that others may be spared from similar miscarriages of justice."

Stevens, born in Indianapolis, served in the U.S. Army Air Corps from 1943 to 1946, according to the official biographical directory for Congress. He flew C-46s and C-47s during World War II.

He graduated from the UCLA in 1947 and Harvard Law School in 1950. He practiced law in Alaska and held several jobs with the Interior Department in Washington in the late 1950s.

He returned to Alaska to work as a lawyer and was elected to the Alaska House of Representatives in 1964. He was re-elected once, and in 1968 he was appointed to the U.S. Senate seat left vacant by the death of E.L. Bartlett. Stevens won the seat in a special election and was re-elected six times by wide margins.

His Senate career spanned Dec. 24, 1968, to Jan. 3, 2009, making him the longest-serving Republican in Senate history.

Stevens left his mark on the state. He was named Alaskan of the Century in January 2000. The airport in Anchorage was renamed in his honor later that year. But he wasn't without controversy, even before his conviction.

One of Stevens' projects, which gained notoriety as the "Bridge to Nowhere," was criticized in 2005 as pork-barrel spending and became targeted by taxpayer groups. The abandoned bridge project would have connected the city of Ketchikan to its island airport for nearly $400 million. Fifty people are said to live on the island where the airport is located.