GOP tries to make Stevens indictment a wash

Republican strategists are working to neutralize the political damage Sen. Ted Stevens (R-Alaska) is suffering from his criminal indictment by alleging his Democratic opponent has committed financial wrongdoing of his own.

Anchorage Mayor Mark Begich has not been charged with committing a crime, but the Alaska Public Offices Commission is reviewing a GOP accusation that the Democratic challenger broke the law by omitting thousands of dollars in earnings from his state financial disclosure forms.

{mosads}The $15,000 in earnings left off his state disclosure forms were reported on his federal financial disclosure documents. But Begich says if he inadvertently left that information off of his state forms, he will correct the error.

“This is really just a political ploy by the Republican Party to change the story away from Ted Stevens and onto Mark Begich,” said the Democrat’s spokeswoman, Julie Hasquet.

McHugh Pierre, the Alaska Republican Party spokesman who filed the complaint, said pointing out the omission “is not an effort to distract” from Stevens’s corruption charges, which he called “very serious.” But he also said Begich’s alleged wrongdoing was “very serious” and that it contradicts the Democrat’s campaign promises of full transparency and disclosure.

The GOP complaint was initially filed two days after federal authorities charged Stevens with failing to report on his Senate disclosure forms more than $250,000 in gifts and home renovations from an oil-services company. Stevens has pleaded not guilty to all seven charges, and has insisted to Alaskan voters that he is innocent of all charges.

The GOP held a press conference criticizing Begich about his forms on July 31, the same day Stevens was arraigned in federal court.

A similar pattern followed this week. Just a day after Stevens’s attorneys lost a court battle to move the senator’s criminal trial to Alaska, the state Republican Party tried to draw attention to Begich’s problems.

Pierre on Thursday highlighted an Aug. 5 letter from Begich to the Alaska Public Offices Commission, detailing his investments and defending himself against the GOP accusation. Pierre also pointed to a June 2007 letter from Begich saying that he forgot to report $25,000 in interest earned on two properties. Pierre took this to mean that the Democrat has a history of making false statements.

In a scathing press release, Pierre said that Begich “confessed to breaking his campaign promise, and state law, by omitting about $15,000 of earnings from this year’s state financial disclosure form.”

A Begich spokeswoman said the timing is proof that the GOP is trying to distract from Stevens’s legal woes.

“The funny thing is that he waited until Sen. Stevens was indicted to start pushing it out on reporters,” Hasquet said.

Stevens, the longest-serving Republican senator in history, faces six GOP challengers in Tuesday’s primary. He is expected to win the primary, but that success might be short-lived.

His legal woes have put his political career in serious jeopardy, and made his fight against Begich a tough climb in November. A Rasmussen poll issued days after his indictment found him trailing Begich by 13 percent.

The District Court for the District of Columbia plans to hold his criminal trial on Sept. 22, and it could end just days before the November elections.

If the case is not concluded before the elections, Stevens will have to convince Alaska voters that he is innocent. At the very least, analysts say, he may have to cast similar suspicions on his opponent’s record.