Ted Stevens was no conservative by any means however.
Mark Begich wasnt leading, wouldnt have won, but:
On October 27, 2008, eight days before the general election, Stevens was found guilty by a Washington D.C. federal jury on seven felony counts.[22]
Stevens's conviction was later set aside due to prosecutorial misconduct. Attorney General Eric Holder later declined to retry him on the corruption charges.
"District Judge Emmet Sullivan also appointed an independent, nongovernment attorney, Henry Schuelke III, to investigate possible misconduct by the government lawyers who prosecuted the 85-year-old former senator from Alaska.
"In nearly 25 years on the bench, I've never seen anything approaching the mishandling and misconduct that I've seen in this case," Sullivan said.
In October, Stevens was found guilty of seven counts of lying on Senate ethics forms. He lost his bid for re-election in November to Democratic challenger Mark Begich, then mayor of Anchorage.
In December, an unnamed FBI whistle-blower accused prosecutors of withholding evidence from the defense. The whistle-blower reported that someone with the government had an inappropriate relationship with Bill Allen, an oil industry executive who was the government's key witness"