Stevens bid farewell on the Senate floor Thursday.

WASHINGTON (CNN) — Republican Sen. Ted Stevens of Alaska, a fixture in the U.S. Senate for nearly 40 years, gave a brief farewell to fellow senators Thursday, adding that he is confident he can "remove the cloud that currently surrounds me."

Stevens, who turned 85 Tuesday, was convicted in October of seven felony charges for filing false statements over several years on his Senate financial disclosure forms. Prosecutors said Stevens hid hundreds of thousands of dollars in "freebies" from an oil-field services company in his home state.

Stevens maintained his innocence even after the conviction. At a debate days before the November 4 general election, he said he had "not been convicted of anything."

It's not clear if the outcome of his trial influenced voters, who gave Stevens 47 percent of their ballots and 48 percent to his Democratic rival for the seat, Mark Begich. Begich currently serves as the mayor of Anchorage, Alaska.

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Palin thanked Ted Stevens for his service to Alaska.

WASHINGTON (CNN) – Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin is congratulating Anchorage Mayor Mark Begich on winning his Senate race against veteran lawmaker Ted Stevens.

“I extend my congratulations to Mark Begich and his family,” Palin said in a statement released by her office Wednesday. “This is a new era for Alaska and I look forward to working with Mark on the many issues that are important to our state. I am confident he will add a compelling new voice to the U.S. Senate.”

"I also thank Senator Ted Stevens for his 40 years of dedicated service to Alaska,” the statement said. “His tireless efforts on behalf of the state he loves have benefited all those who call it home. Todd and I join all Alaskans in gratitude to Sen. Stevens."

Palin wasn’t always so effusive toward Stevens, the longest serving Republican in the Senate. During her vice presidential bid, after Stevens was indicted on seven felony counts, she would not say whether she planned to vote for the senator in his re-election bid.

In October, after Stevens was found guilty of making false statements on his financial disclosure reports, Palin initially said it was “a sad day” for Alaska but did not call for the senator to step down. The next day, in a television appearance with John McCain, Palin went a step further and said Stevens should indeed resign.

On Election Day in her hometown of Wasilla, Palin refused to say if she voted for Stevens.

“I am also exercising my right to privacy, and I don't have to tell anybody who I vote for, nobody does, and that’s really cool about America also,” she told a reporter.

Alaska Sen. Ted Stevens has lost a close election to Democratic challenger Mark Begich, the mayor of Anchorage.

WASHINGTON (CNN) – Sen. Ted Stevens turned 85-years-old Tuesday, but his slice of birthday cake was served with a side of bitter. The one-time powerful lawmaker lost re-election to Anchorage Mayor Mark Begich.

He now heads home to Alaska, and quite possibly prison. Stevens was convicted last month on seven federal corruption charges for filing false statements on his Senate ethics forms.

It has been a hard fall for the one time chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee. Stevens was once one of the most influential lawmakers on Capitol Hill, if not in the nation’s capital. As oil poured south from the Alaska pipeline – “Uncle Ted” as he is affectionately known in his adopted home state – made sure federal dollars flowed north. His diligence in sending what some critics describe as pork dollars helped to build the infrastructure of modern-day Alaska, which won statehood in 1959.

On Tuesday, Stevens expressed his frustration to reporters including my colleague Ted Barrett about the toll this ordeal has taken on him.

“I wouldn’t wish what I’m going through on anyone, my worst enemy,” Stevens told reporters in the Capitol. He went on to complain that he has not “had a night’s sleep in almost four months.”

And it has been a lonely four months for the veteran senator, who saw his Republican colleagues distance themselves from him. This did change Wednesday morning as National Republican Senatorial Committee Chairman John Ensign opened his political briefing by stating that Democrats would have at least 58 seats in the new Congress.

Now, Democrats are just two seats away from a filibuster-proof majority with unresolved races in Georgia and Minnesota determining what will happen.

It was a bittersweet loss for Ensign. Stevens’ troubles added to a long list of Republican ethical woes in the past few years that have helped tarnish the GOP brand. But had Stevens won, Ensign predicted the Alaska senator would have been expelled by his Senate colleagues thus creating a special election. Under this scenario, Ensign predicted that Republicans would have held onto the seat and limiting Democratic gains by at least one.

As of early Wednesday afternoon, Stevens had not conceded the race and Ensign said that he would leave that up to him. But as far as Senate Republicans are concerned they have moved on and now are solely focused on winning Georgia and Minnesota – two contests critical to helping the GOP stage a strong defense against Democratic policies and President-elect Barack Obama’s agenda.

What will happen to Stevens is still unknown. He has yet to be sentenced and his fate now lies in the hands of outgoing President George Bush — who could pardon the one-time Capitol Hill titan and spare him prison time.

Democrat Mark Begich (left) has claimed victory over Sen. Ted Stevens of Alaska.

(CNN) — Alaska Sen. Ted Stevens, the Republican lawmaker convicted on felony corruption charges in October, appears to have lost his bid for re-election to Democrat Mark Begich, according to a release from Begich's campaign and unofficial results from state officials.

The statement and results Tuesday come two weeks after the election, after absentee ballots were counted.

With 100 percent of Alaska's precincts reporting, Begich, the mayor of Anchorage, had roughly 47.7 percent of the vote, compared with about 46.6 percent for Stevens, according to unofficial results posted on the Alaska Secretary of State's Web site.

He appears to have bested Stevens by 3,724 votes, according to the posted results.

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Stevens is not seeking a pardon.

(CNN) — Sen. Ted Stevens, R-Alaska, who was recently convicted on seven felony counts, said Tuesday he won’t ask President Bush to pardon him.

“No, no, no,” Stevens responded emphatically when asked if he would seek a pardon.

The embattled senator, who turned 85 Tuesday, spoke briefly to reporters as he entered a meeting of Senate Republicans who were to decide whether he would be allowed to remain a member of their conference.

“I wouldn’t wish what I’m going through on anyone, my worst enemy,” Stevens said in some of his first public comments about his ordeal since he was convicted last month of failing to report more than $250,000 worth of gifts from an Alaskan oil services company which renovated his house.

“Look, I haven’t had a night’s sleep in almost four months. I went home even during the trial. I came to the Senate the night after the trial. So, I’ve been living like three different lives so it’s hard to even answer your questions but I’m doing my best,” he said.

Election officials are still counting outstanding ballots to determine if Stevens will win re-election. His Democratic rival, Anchorage Mayor Mark Begich, is currently leading by a slim margin.

Republican senators put off their decision about Stevens’ standing in the GOP conference until after its determined if he’ll be re-elected.

Steven turns 85 Tuesday.

(CNN) — It may not be the happiest of birthday's for Ted Stevens. As the longtime Republican Senator from Alaska marks his 85th birthday, he's fighting for his political life.

Stevens was convicted last month of seven felony counts in federal court.

He's locked in a re-election battle with his Democratic challenger, Anchorage Mayor Mark Begich. Two weeks after election day, the vote counting in Alaska continues. Begich currently leads Stevens by 1,022 votes in the fight for Steven's seat, which he's held for 40 years. Some 24,000 votes remain to be counted, as well as absentee ballots from overseas. The results may not be made final until the first week of December.

Back in Washington, Senate Republicans today could vote to expel Stevens from their ranks. This after a move by Sen. Jim DeMint, R-South Carolina, to force a vote on ousting Stevens from the GOP conference, which would strip him of his committee assignments if he survives his campaign battle and is re-elected.

Stevens is trying to become the first person awaiting felony sentencing to ever get elected or re-elected to the Senate. A federal jury found him guilty of lying about gifts and work on his Alaska home. Stevens says he's innocent and will appeal.

UPDATE: Moments after the GOP senators' meeting began Tuesday, DeMint announced he would put off the vote until after Alaska announces the final tally of the close election. An unofficial tally could come Tuesday night.

WASHINGTON (CNN) – Senate Republicans have decided to delay a vote on a resolution to strip embattled Alaska Sen. Ted Stevens from his committee assignments, Republican senators told CNN Tuesday.

The Senate GOP caucus is delaying the vote in part because the outcome of Stevens' reelection race against Anchorage Mayor Mark Begich remains in doubt.

South Carolina Sen. Jim DeMint — a leading Republican critic of Stevens — issued a statement saying it is "clear there are sufficient votes to pass the resolution… The question now is timing. Some who support the resolution believe we should address this after the results of his election are confirmed in Alaska."

DeMint stated that he would ask the GOP Conference to postpone the vote on Sen. Stevens until Thursday.

One Republican senator told CNN there is no point in holding any vote to strip Stevens of his committee assignments if Stevens loses his seat.

Begich currently has a narrow lead over Stevens, with 47.37 percent of the votes counted, compared to 47.02 percent for Stevens. The two are separated by 1,022 votes out of more than 290,000 cast, according to the Alaska Division of Elections Web site.

Today, 24,000 outstanding votes from the southern part of Alaska are expected to be counted. Absentee ballots, however, are still coming in from overseas. All absentee ballots must be received by tomorrow.

Stevens, who turns 85 Tuesday, was convicted in October of filing false statements on Senate financial disclosure forms. He currently serves on the Senate Appropriations, Commerce, Homeland Security, and Rules committees.

A Republican senator hammered John McCain on Friday.

MYRTLE BEACH, South Carolina (CNN) – South Carolina Sen. Jim DeMint on Friday became one of the first high-profile Republicans to publicly criticize John McCain following his electoral defeat, blaming the Arizona senator for betraying conservative principles in his quest for the White House.

The conservative senator, speaking to a group of GOP officials gathered in Myrtle Beach at a conference on the future of the Republican Party, described how the party had strayed from its own "brand," which, according to DeMint, should represent freedom, religious-based values and limited government.

"We have to be honest, and there's a lot of blame to go around, but I have to mention George Bush, and I have to mention Ted Stevens, and I'm afraid I even have to mention John McCain," he said.

DeMint offered a long list of complaints about McCain's record in the Senate and on the campaign trail.

"McCain, who is proponent of campaign finance reform that weakened party organizations and basically put George Soros in the driver's seat," DeMint said. "His proposal for amnesty for illegals. His support of global warming, cap-and-trade programs that will put another burden on our economy. And of course, his embrace of the bailout right before the election was probably the nail in our coffin this last election. And he has been an opponent of drilling in ANWR, at a time when energy is so important. It really didn't fit the label, but he was our package."

Bush and Stevens, he said, had corrupted the party brand by expanding the size of government and engaging in wasteful government spending. Had Republicans not strayed from their core beliefs in recent years, DeMint argued, the election results might have been different.

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Anchorage Mayor Mark Begich has taken the lead over Sen. Ted Stevens as votes continue to be counted in Alaska's senate race.

(CNN) — Republican Sen. Ted Stevens has fallen 814 votes behind Democratic challenger Mark Begich as vote counting continues in Alaska.

The Anchorage mayor was trailing Stevens in the initial count, which did not include at least 90,000 absentee, early and provisional ballots.

With nearly two-thirds of those votes now tallied, Begich has taken the lead. An estimated 40,000 ballots have yet to be counted – a majority of them from the area of the state that includes Anchorage, according to state elections officials.

Updated Wednesday evening with latest count.

(CNN) — Alaska Sen. Ted Stevens’ lead over Democratic challenger Mark Begich disappeared late Wednesday, with thousands of votes yet to be counted.

Stevens began the day with a lead of more than 3,200 votes, but as the state continued its count of at least 90,000 outstanding votes -– a total that includes early votes, absentee votes and disputed ballots — the state’s Division of Elections reported that the incumbent Republican had 125,016 votes, and Begich had 125,019.

Around a third of those ballots had yet to be counted, in a process that is expected to continue into next week.

Alaska has no provision for a runoff if no candidate gets at least 50 percent of the vote; whoever gets the most votes wins.

Defeated candidates may ask for recounts.

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(CNN) — The roller coaster Alaska Senate race could take another turn Wednesday when election officials there plan to count some 50,000 absentee and early ballots which previously have not been totalled.

Alaska's unofficial tally currently shows incumbent Republican Sen. Ted Stevens leading Democratic opponent Mark Begich 48 percent to 46.6 percent. Stevens, a political juggernaut in Washington, is clutching that narrow lead even after a jury found him guilty of seven felony corruption counts last month. The 40-year senator insists he is innocent.

Stevens and Begich are currently separated by just 3,257 votes, according to the Alaska Division of Elections Web site.

But those numbers primarily reflect votes cast on Election Day. In a statement, Alaska elections officials said that no absentee or early votes have been counted yet because the state wanted to check each one against precinct voter lists.

The officials estimate some 50,000 of the uncounted votes have now been cross-checked and will be counted Wednesday.

That could provide a big bounce for either candidate, but it may not end things. State figures indicate another 20,000 early and absentee votes are still being authenticated and will not be tallied yet.

Stevens at an election night celebration.

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (CNN) — Sen. Ted Stevens, convicted last month on seven federal corruption charges, held a slight lead Wednesday in his race for re-election, with the outcome still to be determined.

Stevens, who has represented Alaska almost 40 years and is the Senate's longest-serving Republican, was leading with 48 percent of the vote. His opponent, Anchorage Mayor Mark Begich, had almost 47 percent of the vote.

With 435 of 438 precincts reporting Tuesday night, Stevens led Begich by more than 3,300 votes, 106,351 to 102,998.

But, "there's still a lot to be counted," said Gail Fenumiai, director of Alaska's Division of Elections.

She said more than 40,000 absentee ballots, 9,000 early ballots, and many provisional ballots are yet to be tallied. Officials will try to count them over the next 10 days, she said.

Alaska has no provision for a runoff if no candidate gets at least 50 percent of the vote; whoever gets the most votes wins.

Defeated candidates may ask for recounts.

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Gov. Sarah Palin cast her vote in Alaska and spoke to reporters.

WASILLA, Alaska (CNN) – The legal woes of Alaska Sen. Ted Stevens, who was convicted of seven felonies last week, have posed a special dilemma for the state’s governor, Republican vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin, this the campaign season. Should she endorse the state’s seven-term senator, who has spent the past few months on trial for failing to report gifts on Senate forms, as required by law? Or signal her disapproval of the incumbent, and potentially give a boost to Democrat Mark Begich, whose party stands poised on the edge of a filibuster-proof Senate majority?

Democratic and Republican leadership in the Senate has made it clear Stevens won’t be welcomed back – but both Palin and Republican presidential nominee John McCain have been a bit more circumspect. Asked by reporters whether she cast her ballot for Stevens – who faces expulsion from the Senate if he is re-elected – Palin said she’d exercise her “right to privacy” and keep her vote to herself.

If Stevens claims victory Tuesday, and the Senate expels him as expected, the Alaska governor could be free to appoint any Republican she chose – including herself, if the GOP presidential ticket falls short – as a temporary replacement until a special election can be held.

CNN's Gary Tuchman tried to catch up with Sen. Ted Stevens Sunday.

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.

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A juror in the Stevens trial spoke out Monday about her disappearance from the trial.

WASHINGTON (CNN) – A woman who had been a juror in the criminal trial of Alaska Sen. Ted Stevens told a judge Monday she made up a story about her father dying, so she could go to California for a horse race.

The judge last week initially accepted her story about a family emergency, but was later unable to reach her to learn when she would return.

He then was forced to recall an alternate juror so the panel could resume deliberations on October 27 and possibly render a verdict. Six hours later, the verdict against Stevens was unanimously guilty on all seven counts of making false statements on Senate financial documents.

The fate of the missing juror was in doubt through the middle of last week, when U.S. District Judge Emmet Sullivan issued an order calling her to a hearing Monday morning.

At the hearing, she was publicly identified as Marian Hinnant, known during the trial as Juror No. 4. Hinnant's attorney, public defender A.J. Kramer, told CNN the story about her father's death was a lie.

Kramer said he told the judge that "she was okay, that her father had not died, and that she was in a state of mind where she had to go out of town on that Friday and couldn't deliberate."

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WASHINGTON (CNN) – Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell, while campaigning in his home state of Kentucky Tuesday, told a reporter that convicted Sen. Ted Stevens should resign, McConnell's spokesman Dom Stewart told CNN.

WASHINGTON (CNN) – Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell, while campaigning in his home state of Kentucky Tuesday, told a reporter that convicted Sen. Ted Stevens should resign, McConnell's spokesman Dom Stewart told CNN.

WASHINGTON (CNN) — GOP presidential candidate John McCain Tuesday called on Sen. Ted Stevens, R-Alaska, to step down, one day after the veteran Alaska lawmaker was convicted on seven federal corruption charges.

A jury found Alaska Sen. Ted Stevens guilty Monday on federal charges of making false statements on Senate disclosure forms.

WASHINGTON (CNN) — Alaska Sen. Ted Stevens vowed to fight his Monday conviction on federal corruption charges, a verdict he attributed to "repeated instances of prosecutorial misconduct."

"I will fight this unjust verdict with every ounce of energy I have," the 84-year-old Stevens, the Senate's longest-serving Republican, said in a written statement after the jury came back Monday afternoon. "I am innocent."

Stevens was convicted of seven counts of making false statements on Senate ethics forms to hide hundreds of thousands of dollars in gifts and work on his Alaska home from an oilfield contractor at the center of a corruption probe in the state.

The verdict came days before he is to face voters in a neck-and-neck re-election bid back home. He vowed to get the results overturned and added, "I remain a candidate for the United States Senate."

Gov. Sarah Palin reacted to Sen. Ted Stevens' guilty verdict Monday.

RICHMOND, Virginia (CNN) — Sarah Palin said Monday Sen. Ted Stevens' guilty verdict "is a sad day for Alaska."

"This is a sad day for Alaska and a sad day for Senator Stevens and his family," she said on the tarmac at Richmond International Airport. "The verdict shines a light on the corrupting influence of the big oil service company up there in Alaska that was allowed to control too much of our state. And that control was part of the culture of corruption that I was elected to fight, and that fight must always move forward regardless of party affiliation or seniority or even past service.

"As Governor of the State of Alaska, I will carefully now monitor the situation and I'll take any appropriate action as needed. In the meantime, I ask the people of Alaska to join me in respecting the workings of our judicial system and I'm confident that Senator Stevens from this point on will do the right thing for the people of Alaska," she said.

Palin did not respond when asked if she will vote for Sen. Stevens next week and promptly boarded her campaign plane.