Vote on convicted Stevens in Senate postponed: Alaska
A move to oust Alaska Sen. Ted Stevens from the U.S. Senate Republican conference was abruptly postponed on Tuesday pending the outcome of the convicted felon's bid for re-election. Sen. Jim DeMint of South Carolina said he would now seek a vote on whether to remove the 84-year-old Stevens from the party conference and strip him of his committee assignments on Thursday.
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By then, a winner should finally be declared in the extremely close November 4 election between Stevens and Democratic challenger Mark Begich, the mayor of Anchorage.
Begich holds a lead of only about 1,000 votes, with the final 24,000 absentee and other ballots expected to be counted later on Tuesday.
DeMint called last week for a vote on Tuesday on resolution to remove Stevens from the Senate Republican conference, saying the party needs to clean up its political house after Democrats won the White House and made big gains in Congress in the November 4 election.
But in a statement just hours before the conference met privately to elect leaders for the new Congress set to convene in January, DeMint issued a statement saying he would postpone action.
"After talking with many of my colleagues, it's clear there are sufficient votes to pass the resolution regarding Senator Stevens," DeMint said.
"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. For this reason, I will ask the conference to postpone the vote on Senator Stevens until Thursday," DeMint said.
Senate Republican leadership aides said it was unclear if DeMint had enough votes to approve the resolution.
Stevens is seeking to become the first convicted felon to win election to the Senate.
He was convicted last month of seven counts of lying on Senate disclosure forms by failing to report more than $250,000 in home improvements and other gifts from an oil executive. He faces up to 35 years in prison. He also promises an appeal.
If Stevens wins re-election, but loses his appeal, he appears certain to be expelled from the Senate where both Democrats and Republicans have voiced support for such action.
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