Sen. Stevens drops behind in Alaska poll

Sen. Ted Stevens (R-Alaska) has fallen behind his Democratic opponent by eight percentage points, while a majority of Alaskan voters say he should resign in the wake of his felony conviction, according to a new poll released Wednesday. 

Stevens, an icon in Alaska, is hoping that voters believe his contention that the verdict was unjust and that he should be returned to the Senate for a seventh full term. He has served in the upper chamber longer than any Republican in history.

{mosads}However, according to a new Rasmussen poll, Stevens is trailing Anchorage Mayor Mark Begich (D) by eight points, a sharp change in a race that had been deadlocked before the verdict was returned Monday. 

The senior senator’s favorability rating has dropped to 43 percent, down 11 points since before his corruption trial began in late September. And because of Monday’s conviction, 52 percent of Alaskans now believe he should resign the Senate seat he has held for four decades, the poll found.

The telephone survey of 500 likely voters was conducted Tuesday, a day after Stevens was convicted of seven felony charges for failing to report more than $250,000 in gifts from friends. The margin of error is 4.5 percent.

A Republican source close to Stevens contends that the race is much tighter, citing polling by a GOP firm conducted after the conviction that shows the race tied at 42 percent. The source dismissed the poll because Rasmussen uses automated phone calls that rural Alaskans typically ignore.

Dave Dittman, a GOP pollster in Alaska, said Stevens might be able to tighten the margin after the initial shock of his conviction subsides in the state. Stevens is expected to hold a rally Wednesday in his first return to the state since his conviction.

But Dittman doubted Stevens could pull off a victory next week because of the growing chorus of GOP lawmakers who are calling on him to resign. In particular, he cited comments made by Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), who said Stevens would be expelled from the Senate if he does not resign or lose his race.

“As far as voters are concerned, it seems to me that it would be pretty hard to vote for someone who’s not going to be there,” Dittman said.

Dittman said he has not finished his own post-conviction polling of Stevens’s race.

Dittman stressed that the race is not over and that there is still "a reservoir of good will" that Stevens can tap into in the next week.

Meanwhile, the senator’s attorneys are echoing his contention that the case had been conducted unfairly, and have formally asked the Justice Department to investigate allegations of prosecutorial misconduct.