Add one more to Dems lead

Congratulation and a Concession for Alaska’s Senator-Elect By WILLIAM YARDLEY Irascible will be out. Approachable will be in. That oil drilling and federal earmarks? They will still be a go. Alaska’s senator-elect, Mayor Mark Begich of Anchorage, held a news conference in Anchorage on Wednesday, the morning after he unseated the longest-serving Republican in Senate history, Ted Stevens, and promised to be more of a listener and a consensus builder than he said Mr. Stevens had often been. “What you have here is a state in transformation,” said Mr. Begich, who will become Alaska’s first Democratic senator since Mike Gravel left office in 1981. “What I want to do,” he said, “is repackage some of the messaging of what we have here that will have an impact on this country.” Mr. Begich said that would mean convincing Democrats in Congress that the nation’s energy policy, not just Alaska, would benefit by drilling for oil in controversial areas like the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, as well as by developing a natural gas pipeline that would provide fuel for other states and by pursuing renewable and alternative fuels. But Mr. Begich said he wanted to broaden the story of Alaska beyond oil. He said he wanted to bring Democrats to Alaska to see impoverished rural areas, to see its distinctive challenges in areas like education and health care. “I want to explain this differently,” he said. Mr. Stevens, a 40-year incumbent known for delivering billions of dollars in federal money for Alaska and often throwing sharp elbows in the process, conceded the race shortly after Mr. Begich’s news conference. After a prolonged count of absentee ballots, Mr. Stevens trailed Mr. Begich by more than 3,700 votes, out of 315,000 cast, with an estimated 2,500 votes still to be counted next week. “Given the number of ballots that remain to be counted, it is apparent the election has been decided and Mayor Begich has been elected,” Mr. Stevens, who was in Washington, said in a statement. “My family and I wish to thank the thousands of Alaskans who stood by us and who supported my re-election.” Eight days before the election, Mr. Stevens, 85, was convicted in federal court in Washington of seven felony counts of failing to disclose gifts and free home renovations he had received. He returned to Alaska six days before the election to campaign, running advertisements that said he had been wrongly convicted and would be vindicated on appeal. “I am proud of the campaign we ran and regret that the outcome was not what we had hoped for,” Mr. Stevens said. Mr. Begich said he had received a congratulatory call Wednesday morning from Lisa Murkowski, Alaska’s junior senator and a Republican who supported Mr. Stevens. He said Gov. Sarah Palin, also a Republican, had congratulated him at an event both attended. In a statement released later, Ms. Palin said: “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.” On the thorny subject of federal earmark spending, though, Mr. Begich sounded a familiar tone Wednesday. He said he still expected the state to pursue and receive the federal money. His approach would echo what he said was current thinking in Congress: pursue projects that are consistent with long-term planning for transportation and other infrastructure, to create jobs and economic growth. “A holistic approach,” Mr. Begich called it. One specific project he mentioned was federal financing for Alaska’s ferry system.