Colleagues turn away Stevens cash

Republicans rushed Wednesday to distance themselves from Sen. Ted Stevens as the longest-serving GOP senator’s career plunged deeper into turmoil.

A stunning blow for the Alaska Republican came when the reelection campaign of Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R) announced that it would donate $10,000 received from Stevens to a Christian mission in the senator’s home state of Kentucky.

{mosads}McConnell, who avoided discussing Stevens’s indictment publicly for a second consecutive day, is the latest among nearly all vulnerable Republican members up for reelection in 2008 who have decided to divert money received from Stevens’s Northern Lights political action committee (PAC) to charity.

Stevens faces seven felony charges for concealing $250,000 in gifts from an oil services company. He has said he is innocent and is seeking a seventh full term.

While Republicans say Stevens should be presumed innocent, the GOP — including McConnell — is eager not to be linked to the embattled senator.

Sens. Elizabeth Dole (R-N.C.), John Cornyn (R-Texas), Gordon Smith (R-Ore.), John Sununu (R-N.H.), Pat Roberts (R-Kan.) and Susan Collins (R-Maine) all said they would donate thousands of dollars linked to Stevens. Ex-Agriculture Secretary and -Nebraska Gov. Mike Johanns (R), the favorite for that state’s open Senate seat, is also donating the money he received from the PAC.

“It sends a signal that [McConnell] is disassociating himself from him,” a senior GOP aide said.

Sen. John Ensign (Nev.), chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, declined to endorse Stevens in his reelection bid and during his GOP primary, where he faces six challengers — two of them well-funded — on Aug. 26.

“There is a process that is in place, and we are letting the process play out,” Ensign said. “That is my statement; that is all you’ll get out of me.”

Republicans privately predicted the senator would either lose the primary in August or reelection in the fall, or be found guilty and leave the race.

“He almost certainly will not be returning,” another senior GOP aide said, adding that there was little reason to call on Stevens to resign his seat.

{mospagebreak}Republicans are hoping the buzz over the indictment will subside during the August recess, replaced by headlines about the presidential campaign and high gas prices.

But there were GOP concerns voiced privately that Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) could have a solid shot at winning Alaska’s three electoral votes if Stevens is on the ballot — even though the state has long been a Republican stronghold.

Sen. Lindsey Graham (S.C.), a co-chairman of Republican John McCain’s presidential campaign, dismissed that scenario.

{mosads}“I don’t subscribe to the idea that you have to give up your political career because somebody has accused you of doing something, because that could happen to all of us,” Graham said. “If he’s convicted, then obviously that’s the end of his political career.”

Stevens’s arraignment is set for Thursday afternoon before Judge Emmet G. Sullivan, who was appointed to the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia by President Bill Clinton in 1994.

Stevens is expected to plead not guilty to the indictment, which was handed down by a federal grand jury on Tuesday.

Stevens spent Wednesday in the Capitol, casting Senate votes, telling his colleagues he was innocent at a closed-door lunch and attending business before committees he sits on.

In the Capitol hallways, Stevens repeatedly refused to comment. “Nice to see you — I’ll have a comment later,” Stevens said.

For Republican leadership, the Stevens case presents a unique set of problems. Having served in public life for six decades, the senator is a giant in the chamber with numerous allies. Publicly calling on him to resign could create a divisive battle on the eve of the November elections. Plus, GOP leaders are torn over whether another of the six challengers would have a better shot than Stevens, who is a legend in the state and is affectionately known as “Uncle Ted.”

But if Republican leaders don’t reprimand him, they could look hypocritical. When news broke last year of Sen. Larry Craig (R-Idaho) pleading guilty to a misdemeanor following a sex sting in a bathroom at Minneapolis-St. Paul International airport, GOP leaders — including Ensign and McConnell — called for his resignation.

Sen. Norm Coleman (R-Minn.), one of the first lawmakers to call publicly for Craig to resign, said Wednesday that it was not inconsistent to stand behind Stevens, since Craig was guilty of disorderly conduct and tried to hide it from the public.

“There is a presumption of innocence in this country,” Coleman said. “Larry Craig pled guilty before it was public.”

Coleman faces a tough reelection battle in the fall, and initially sounded as though he would not return $10,000 he received from Stevens’s PAC. But saying that Democrats were “creating a diversion,” he relented and said he would donate the funds to children’s cancer research.

Craig declined to comment, saying “next February or March you can read about it in my new book,” He added: “There were too many critics when my issue came along, and I don’t think I can lend to this one.”

The Senate Republican Conference took steps Wednesday to limit Stevens’s influence, such as naming Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-Texas) to his former post as ranking member on the Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee and Sen. Thad Cochran (R-Miss.) as ranking member on the Appropriations Defense subcommittee.

Stevens will continue to sit on five committees, and GOP leaders are indicating they will not take additional steps to reprimand the powerful senator, who took home $3.2 billion worth of earmarks over the last four years, according to the group Taxpayers for Common Sense.

J. Taylor Rushing contributed to this article.