Editing Ted Stevens (section)

==Early Alaska career==
In 1952, while still working for Northcutt Ely, Stevens volunteered for the presidential campaign of [[Dwight D. Eisenhower]], writing position papers for the campaign on western water law and lands. By the time Eisenhower won the election that November, Stevens had acquired contacts who told him, "We want you to come over to Interior." Stevens left his job with Ely, but a job in the Eisenhower administration did not materialize<ref name="whitney-roadnorth"/> as a result of a temporary hiring freeze instituted by Eisenhower in an effort to reduce spending.<ref name="Mitchell 2001"/>{{rp|222}}

Instead, Stevens was offered a job with the [[Fairbanks, Alaska]], law firm of Charles Clasby, Emil Usibelli's Alaska attorney whose firm (Collins &{{spaces}}Clasby) had just lost one of its attorneys.<ref name="Mitchell 2001"/>{{rp|222}}<ref name="whitney-roadnorth"/> Stevens and his wife had met and liked both Usibelli and Clasby, and decided to make the move.<ref name="whitney-roadnorth"/> Loading up their 1947 Buick<ref name="Mitchell 2001"/>{{rp|223}} and traveling on a $600 loan from Clasby, they drove across country from Washington, D.C., and up the [[Alaska Highway]] in the dead of winter, arriving in Fairbanks in February 1953. Stevens later recalled kidding Governor [[Walter Joseph Hickel|Walter Hickel]] about the loan. "He likes to say that he came to Alaska with 38 cents in his pocket", he said of Hickel. "I came $600 in debt."<ref name="whitney-roadnorth"/> Ann Stevens recalled in 1968 that they made the move to Alaska "on a six-month trial basis".<ref name="Mitchell 2001"/>{{rp|223}}

In Fairbanks, Stevens made contacts within the city's Republican party division. He befriended conservative newspaper publisher C.W. Snedden, who had purchased the ''[[Fairbanks Daily News-Miner]]'' in 1950. Snedden's wife, Helen, later recalled that Snedden and Stevens were "like father and son". However, she would add in 1994 that "The only problem Ted had was that he had a temper", crediting her husband with helping to steady Stevens like you would do with a son, and with teaching Stevens the art of diplomacy.<ref name="whitney-roadnorth"/>

===U.S. Attorney===
==== Nomination ====
Stevens had been with Collins & Clasby for six months when Robert J. McNealy, a Democrat appointed as [[United States Attorney|U.S. Attorney]] for Fairbanks during the Truman administration,<ref name="whitney-roadnorth"/> informed U.S. District Judge Harry Pratt he would be resigning effective August 15, 1953,<ref name="Mitchell 2001"/>{{rp|224}} having already delayed his resignation by several months at the request of [[United States Department of Justice|Justice Department]] officials newly appointed by Eisenhower. The latter had asked McNealy to delay his resignation until Eisenhower could appoint a replacement.<ref name="Mitchell 2001"/>{{rp|223}} Despite Stevens's short tenure as an Alaska resident and his relative lack of trial or [[criminal law]] experience, Pratt asked Stevens to serve in the position until Eisenhower acted.<ref name="Mitchell 2001"/>{{rp|224}} Stevens agreed. "I said, 'Sure, I'd like to do that,'" Stevens recalled years later. "Clasby said to me, 'It's not going to pay you as much money', but, 'if you want to do it, that's your business.' He was very pissed that I decided to go."<ref name="whitney-roadnorth"/> Most members of the Fairbanks Bar Association voiced their disapproval of the appointment of a newcomer, and members in attendance at the association's meeting that December voted to instead support Carl Messenger for the permanent appointment, an endorsement seconded by the Alaska Republican Party Committee for the Fairbanks-area judicial division.<ref name="Mitchell 2001"/>{{rp|224}} However, Stevens was favored by Attorney General [[Herbert Brownell Jr.|Herbert Brownell]], Senator [[William F. Knowland]] of California, and the [[Republican National Committee]],<ref name="Mitchell 2001"/>{{rp|224}} (Alaska itself had no Senators at this time, as it was still a [[Organized incorporated territories of the United States|territory]]). Eisenhower sent Stevens's nomination to the [[United States Senate|U.S. Senate]] on February 25, 1954,<ref name="biog"/><ref name="Mitchell 2001"/>{{rp|225}} and the Senate confirmed him on March 30.<ref name="whitney-roadnorth"/>

==== Career as U.S. Attorney ====
Stevens soon gained a reputation as an active prosecutor who vigorously prosecuted violations of both federal and territorial liquor, drug, and prostitution laws,<ref name="whitney-roadnorth"/> characterized by Fairbanks area [[homesteader]] [[Niilo Koponen]] (who later served in the Alaska State House of Representatives from 1982 to 1991) as "this rough tough shorty of a district attorney who was going to crush crime".<ref name="Mitchell 2001"/>{{rp|225}} Stevens sometimes accompanied [[United States Marshals Service|U.S. Marshals]] on raids. As recounted years later by Justice [[Jay Rabinowitz (jurist)|Jay Rabinowitz]], "U.S. marshals went in with [[Tommy gun]]s and Ted led the charge, smoking a stogie and with six guns on his hips."<ref name="whitney-roadnorth"/> However, Stevens himself said the colorful stories spread about him as a pistol-packing D.A. were greatly exaggerated, and recalled only one incident when he carried a gun: on a vice raid to the town of [[Big Delta, Alaska|Big Delta]] about {{convert|75|mi|km|0}} southeast of Fairbanks, he carried a holstered gun on a marshal's suggestion.<ref name="whitney-roadnorth"/>

Stevens also became known for his explosive temper, which was focused particularly on a criminal defense lawyer named [[Warren A. Taylor]]<ref name="whitney-roadnorth"/> who would later go on to become the [[Alaska Legislature]]'s first Speaker of the House in the [[1st Alaska State Legislature|First Alaska State Legislature]].<ref name="vot-taylor">[[Anchorage Times|Voice of the Times]]. (December 31, 2004). [https://web.archive.org/web/20110609200734/http://nl.newsbank.com/nl-search/we/Archives?p_product=AS&p_theme=as&p_action=search&p_maxdocs=200&s_dispstring=allfields(%22Warren%20A.%20Taylor%22)%20AND%20section(all)%20AND%20date(2004)&p_field_date-0=YMD_date&p_params_date-0=date:B,E&p_text_date-0=2004&p_field_advanced-0=&p_text_advanced-0=(%22Warren%20A.%20Taylor%22)&xcal_numdocs=20&p_perpage=10&p_sort=_rank_:D&xcal_ranksort=4&xcal_useweights=yes "Test your legislative knowledge."] ''Anchorage Daily News''. Retrieved June 7, 2007.</ref> "Ted would get red in the face, blow up and stalk out of the courtroom", a former court clerk later recalled of Stevens's relationship with Taylor.<ref name="whitney-roadnorth"/> Later on, a former colleague of Stevens would "cringe at remembering hearing Stevens through the wall of their Anchorage law office berating clients." Stevens's wife, Ann, would make her husband read self-help books to try and calm him down, although this effort was to no avail. As one observer remembered: "He would lose his temper about the dumbest things. Even when you would agree with him, he got mad at you for agreeing with him."<ref name="leader" />

In 1956, in a trial which received national headlines, Stevens prosecuted Jack Marler; a former [[Internal Revenue Service]] agent who had been indicted for failing to file tax returns. Marler's first trial, which was handled by a different prosecutor, had ended in a deadlocked jury and a [[mistrial (law)|mistrial]]. For the second trial, Stevens was up against [[Edgar Paul Boyko]], a flamboyant [[Anchorage, Alaska|Anchorage]] attorney who built his defense of Marler on the theory of [[no taxation without representation]], citing the [[Alaska Territory|Territory of Alaska]]'s lack of representation in the [[United States Congress|U.S. Congress]]. As recalled by Boyko, his closing argument to the jury was a rabble-rousing appeal for the jury to "strike a blow for Alaskan freedom", claiming that "this case was the jury's chance to move Alaska toward statehood." Boyko remembered that "Ted had done a hell of a job in the case", but Boyko's tactics paid off, and Marler was acquitted on April 3, 1956. Following the acquittal, Stevens issued a statement saying, "I don't believe the jury's verdict is an expression of resistance to taxes or law enforcement or the start of a [[Boston Tea Party]]." Stevens then followed "I do believe, however, that the decision will be a blow to the hopes for Alaska statehood."<ref name="whitney-roadnorth"/>

===Department of the Interior===
====Alaska statehood====
[[File:Ted Stevens and Dwight Eisenhower.jpg|thumb|left|alt=Dwight D. Eisenhower, left, in a bright-colored suit, talks to Ted Stevens, right, in a dark colored suit, circa 1958|Stevens with [[Dwight D. Eisenhower|Dwight Eisenhower]] in 1958]]
In March 1956, Stevens's friend Elmer Bennett, legislative counsel in the [[United States Department of the Interior|Department of the Interior]], was promoted by [[United States Secretary of the Interior|Secretary of the Interior]] [[Douglas McKay]] to the Secretary's office. Bennett successfully lobbied McKay to replace him in his old job with Stevens, and Stevens returned to Washington, D.C., to take up the position.<ref name="Mitchell 2001"/>{{rp|226}} By the time he arrived in June 1956, McKay had resigned in order to run for the U.S. Senate from his home state of [[Oregon]], and [[Fred Andrew Seaton]] had been appointed to replace him.<ref name="Mitchell 2001"/>{{rp|226}}<ref name="whitney-seekingstatehood">{{cite news|last=Whitney|first=David|date=August 10, 1994|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110609200127/http://nl.newsbank.com/nl-search/we/Archives?p_product=AS&p_theme=as&p_action=search&p_maxdocs=200&s_dispstring=headline(%22seeking%20statehood%20stevens%22)%20AND%20section(all)%20AND%20date(all)&p_field_advanced-0=title&p_text_advanced-0=(%22seeking%20statehood%20stevens%22)&xcal_numdocs=20&p_perpage=10&p_sort=_rank_:D&xcal_ranksort=4&xcal_useweights=yes|title=Seeking statehood: Stevens bent rules to bring Alaska into the union.|work=[[Anchorage Daily News]]|archive-date=June 9, 2011|url=http://nl.newsbank.com/nl-search/we/Archives?p_product=AS&p_theme=as&p_action=search&p_maxdocs=200&s_dispstring=headline(%22seeking%20statehood%20stevens%22)%20AND%20section(all)%20AND%20date(all)&p_field_advanced-0=title&p_text_advanced-0=(%22seeking%20statehood%20stevens%22)&xcal_numdocs=20&p_perpage=10&p_sort=_rank_:D&xcal_ranksort=4&xcal_useweights=yes|url-status=dead|access-date=June 1, 2007}}</ref> Seaton, a newspaper publisher from Nebraska,<ref name="Mitchell 2001"/>{{rp|226}} was a close friend of ''[[Fairbanks Daily News-Miner]]'' publisher C.W. Snedden, who was in addition friends with Stevens, and in common with Snedden was an advocate of Alaska statehood,<ref name="whitney-seekingstatehood"/> unlike McKay, who had been lukewarm in his support.<ref name="Mitchell 2001"/>{{rp|226}} Upon his appointment, Seaton asked Snedden if he knew anyone from Alaska who could come down to Washington, D.C. to work for Alaska statehood; Snedden replied that the man he needed (Stevens) was already there working in the [[United States Department of the Interior|Department of the Interior]].<ref name="whitney-seekingstatehood"/> The fight for Alaska statehood became Stevens's principal work at Interior. "He did all the work on statehood", Roger Ernst, the then Assistant Secretary of Interior for Public Land Management, later said of Stevens. "He wrote 90 percent of all the speeches; Statehood was his main project."<ref name="whitney-seekingstatehood"/> A sign on Stevens's door proclaimed his office as "Alaskan Headquarters", and Stevens became known at the Department of the Interior as "Mr. Alaska".<ref name="Mitchell 2001"/>{{rp|226}}

[[File:Interior Dept. Secretary Seaton & Solicitor Stevens.jpg|thumb|right|Secretary [[Fred Seaton]] and Solicitor Stevens, 1960]]
Efforts to make Alaska a state had been going on since 1943, and had nearly come to fruition during the [[Harry S. Truman|Truman]] administration in 1950 when a statehood bill passed in the U.S. House of Representatives, only to die in the Senate.<ref name="whitney-seekingstatehood"/> The national Republican Party opposed statehood for Alaska, in part out of fear that Alaska would, upon statehood, elect Democrats to the U.S. Congress, while the Southern Democrats opposed statehood, believing that the addition of 2 new pro-civil rights Senators would jeopardize the Solid South's control on Congressional law.<ref name="whitney-seekingstatehood"/> At the time Stevens arrived in Washington, D.C., to take up his new job, a constitutional convention to write an Alaska constitution had just been concluded on the campus of the [[University of Alaska]] in Fairbanks.<ref name="akconvention">{{cite web|publisher=University of Alaska|year=2004|url=https://www.alaska.edu/creatingalaska/constitutional-convention/|title=Constitutional Convention|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161105211841/https://www.alaska.edu/creatingalaska/constitutional-convention/ |archive-date=November 5, 2016|work=Creating Alaska: The Origins of the 49th State|access-date=June 21, 2007}}</ref> The 55 delegates also elected three unofficial representatives (all Democrats) as unofficial Shadow congressmen: [[Ernest Gruening]] and [[William Allen Egan|William Egan]] as Shadow U.S. Senators and [[Ralph Rivers]] as Shadow at-large U.S. representative.<ref name="whitney-seekingstatehood"/>

[[File:Ted Stevens 1967.PNG|upright|thumb|left|alt=Ted Stevens lighting a pipe on January 23rd, 1967. He is in a dark room, wearing glasses, a black suit, and a black tie. His head is tilted downwards, and his body is tilted slightly to the right hand side of the photograph.|Stevens in January 1967]]
President Eisenhower, a Republican, regarded Alaska as too large in area and with a population density too low to be economically self-sufficient as a state, and furthermore saw statehood as an obstacle to effective defense of Alaska should the Soviet Union seek to invade it.<ref name="whitney-seekingstatehood"/> Eisenhower was especially worried about the sparsely populated areas of northern and western Alaska. In March 1954, he had reportedly "drawn a line on a map" indicating his opinion of the portions of Alaska which he felt ought to remain in federal hands even if Alaska were granted statehood.<ref name="whitney-seekingstatehood"/>

Seaton and Stevens worked with Gen. [[Nathan Farragut Twining|Nathan Twining]], the incumbent [[Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff]], who himself had previously served in Alaska; and Jack L. Stempler, a top [[United States Department of Defense|Defense Department]] attorney, to create a compromise that would address Eisenhower's concerns. Much of their work was conducted in a hospital room at [[Walter Reed Army Medical Center|Walter Reed Army Hospital]], where Interior Secretary Seaton was receiving treatment for reoccurring health issues with his back.<ref name="whitney-seekingstatehood"/> Their work concentrated on refining the line on the map that Eisenhower had drawn in 1954, one which became known as the PYK Line after three rivers (the [[Porcupine River|Porcupine]], [[Yukon River|Yukon]], and [[Kuskokwim River|Kuskokwim]]) whose courses defined much of the line.<ref name="whitney-seekingstatehood"/> The PYK Line was the basis for Section{{spaces}}10 of the [[Alaska Statehood Act]], which Stevens wrote.<ref name="whitney-seekingstatehood"/> Under Section 10, the land north and west of the PYK Line{{snd}}which included the entirety of Alaska's [[Alaska North Slope|North Slope]], the [[Seward Peninsula]], most of the [[Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta]], the western portions of the [[Alaska Peninsula]], and the [[Aleutian Islands|Aleutian]] and [[Pribilof Islands]]{{snd}}would be part of the new state, but the president would be granted [[emergency power]]s to establish special national defense withdrawals in those areas if deemed necessary.<ref name="alaskastatehoodact">Statehood Act, Pub. L. 85-508, 72 Stat. 339. July 7, 1958. Codified at [https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/html/uscode48/usc_sup_01_48_10_2notes.html 48 U.S.C., Chapter 2.] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111026061522/https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/html/uscode48/usc_sup_01_48_10_2notes.html |date=October 26, 2011 }}</ref><ref>[https://www.eisenhowerfoundation.net/sites/default/files/psl_media_files/AL16_memo%252CfromTedStevensREAlaskaStatehoodAct%252C7_4_58.pdf Eisenhower Foundation] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230520155210/https://www.eisenhowerfoundation.net/sites/default/files/psl_media_files/AL16_memo%252CfromTedStevensREAlaskaStatehoodAct%252C7_4_58.pdf |date=May 20, 2023 }}</ref><ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.seniorvoicealaska.com/story/2015/07/01/columns/alaska-wins-battle-for-statehood-in-1958/809.html | title=Alaska wins battle for statehood in 1958 | access-date=May 20, 2023 | archive-date=May 20, 2023 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230520155219/https://www.seniorvoicealaska.com/story/2015/07/01/columns/alaska-wins-battle-for-statehood-in-1958/809.html | url-status=live }}</ref> "It's still in the law but it's never been exercised", Stevens later recollected. "Now that the problem with Russia is gone, it's surplusage. But it is a special law that only applies to Alaska."<ref name="whitney-seekingstatehood"/>
[[File:Ted Stevens 1977.jpg|thumb|upright|Stevens's Congressional portrait for the [[95th United States Congress]], 1977]]
Stevens, illegally, also took part in lobbying for the statehood bill,<ref name="whitney-seekingstatehood"/> working closely with the Alaska Statehood Committee from his office at Interior.<ref name="whitney-seekingstatehood"/> Stevens hired Marilyn Atwood,<ref name="whitney-seekingstatehood"/> daughter of ''[[Anchorage Times]]'' publisher Robert Atwood,<ref name="whitney-seekingstatehood"/> who was chairman of the Alaska Statehood Committee,<ref name="robert-atwood">University of Alaska. (ca. 2004). [http://www.alaska.edu/creatingalaska/StatehoodFiles/whoswho/alaskans/atwood.xml "Alaskans for Statehood: Robert B. Atwood."] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060908193213/http://www.alaska.edu/creatingalaska/StatehoodFiles/whoswho/alaskans/atwood.xml |date=September 8, 2006 }} ''Creating Alaska: The Origins of the 49th State'' (website). Retrieved on June 21, 2007.</ref> to work with him in the Interior Department. "We were violating the law", Stevens told a researcher in an October 1977 oral history interview for the [[Eisenhower Presidential Center|Eisenhower Library]]. Stevens explained in the interview that they were violating a long-standing statute against lobbying from the executive branch. "We more or less masterminded the House and Senate attack from the executive branch."<ref name="whitney-seekingstatehood"/> Stevens and the younger Atwood created file cards on Congressmen based on their backgrounds, identity and religious beliefs, as he later recalled in the 1977 interview. "We'd assigned these Alaskans to go talk to individual members of the Senate and split them down on the basis of people that had something in common with them."<ref name="whitney-seekingstatehood"/> The lobbying campaign extended to presidential press conferences. "We set Ike (Eisenhower) up quite often at press conferences by planting questions about Alaska statehood", Stevens said in the 1977 interview. "We never let a press conference go by without getting someone to try to ask him about statehood."<ref name="whitney-seekingstatehood"/> Newspapers were also targeted, according to Stevens. "We planted editorials in weeklies and dailies and newspapers in the district of people we thought were opposed to us or states where they were opposed to us." Stevens then added "...Suddenly they were thinking twice about opposing us."<ref name="whitney-seekingstatehood"/>

The [[Alaska Statehood Act]] became law with Eisenhower's signature on July 7, 1958,<ref name="alaskastatehoodact"/> and Alaska formally was admitted to statehood on January 3, 1959, when Eisenhower signed the Alaska Statehood Proclamation.<ref name="akstateproclaim">University of Alaska. (ca. 2004). [http://www.alaska.edu/creatingalaska/StatehoodFiles/infodocs/pictures/statehoodproclamation.xml "Signing of the Alaska Statehood Proclamation, January 3, 1959."] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060912232953/http://www.alaska.edu/creatingalaska/StatehoodFiles/infodocs/pictures/statehoodproclamation.xml |date=September 12, 2006 }} ''Creating Alaska: The Origins of the 49th State'' (website). Retrieved on June 21, 2007.</ref>

==== Solicitor of Interior ====
On September 15, 1960, George W. Abbott resigned as Solicitor of the Interior to become Assistant Secretary, and Stevens became Solicitor. He stayed in this office until the [[Presidency of Dwight D. Eisenhower|Eisenhower administration]] left office on January 20, 1961.<ref>{{Cite news |date=1960-09-15 |title=SEATON AIDE NAMED; TWO ENVOYS RESIGN |language=en-US |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1960/09/15/archives/seaton-aide-named-two-envoys-resign.html |access-date=2023-02-24 |issn=0362-4331 |archive-date=December 23, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221223071445/https://www.nytimes.com/1960/09/15/archives/seaton-aide-named-two-envoys-resign.html |url-status=live }}</ref> In his position as the highest attorney in the Interior Department, he authored the order that created the [[Arctic National Wildlife Refuge]] in 1960.<ref name="drilling"/><ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.audubonofkansas.org/prairie-wings.cfm?fx=XJHK1ACMSK0OFPDI|title=A Kansas Native Led the Politically-Challenging Campaign to Create the Arctic Wildlife Range/Refuge|website=audubonofkansas.org|date=Winter 2012|author=Dick Seaton|access-date=10 May 2023|archive-date=June 30, 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230630194537/https://www.audubonofkansas.org/prairie-wings.cfm?fx=XJHK1ACMSK0OFPDI|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="greenpeace">{{cite web|url=https://www.greenpeace.org/usa/wp-content/uploads/legacy/Global/usa/planet3/PDFs/ted-stevens-chronology.pdf|title=Ted Stevens chronology|website=greenpeace.org|access-date=10 May 2023|archive-date=April 20, 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230420152237/https://www.greenpeace.org/usa/wp-content/uploads/legacy/Global/usa/planet3/PDFs/ted-stevens-chronology.pdf|url-status=live}}</ref>

===Return to Alaska and service in the Alaska House of Representatives===
After returning to Alaska, Stevens managed [[Richard Nixon]]'s [[1960 United States presidential election|1960]] campaign in [[1960 United States presidential election in Alaska|Alaska]]. Nixon lost the election narrowly to [[John F. Kennedy]], but won Alaska, which was unexpected due to Alaska's [[Democratic Party (United States)|Democratic]] lean.<ref name="race60">{{Cite journal |last=Chinn |first=Ronald E. |date=1969 |title=The 1968 Election in Alaska |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/446336 |journal=The Western Political Quarterly |volume=22 |issue=3 |pages=456–461 |doi=10.2307/446336 |jstor=446336 |issn=0043-4078 |access-date=May 19, 2023 |archive-date=February 10, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230210050556/https://www.jstor.org/stable/446336 |url-status=live }}</ref> Shortly after, Stevens founded Stevens & Savage, a law firm in [[Anchorage, Alaska|Anchorage]]. Stevens was then joined by [[H. Russel Holland]], who later became a federal judge on the [[United States District Court for the District of Alaska|U.S. District Court for the District of Alaska]], and the firm's name changed to Stevens, Savage & Holland.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Gardner |first1=Darrel J. |title=Senior Judges Section – Hon. H. Russel Holland |journal=The Federal Lawyer |date=September 2017 |pages=58–60 |url=https://www.fedbar.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/Hon-H-Russel-Holland-pdf-3.pdf |access-date=6 May 2022 |archive-date=April 7, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230407230947/https://www.fedbar.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/Hon-H-Russel-Holland-pdf-3.pdf |url-status=live }}</ref> Stevens became a member of Operation Rampart, a group in favor of building the [[Rampart Dam]], a hydroelectric project on the [[Yukon River]].<ref>Coates, Peter A. ''The Trans-Alaska Pipeline Controversy''. University of Alaska Press, 1991. Page 143.</ref> Elected to the [[Alaska House of Representatives]] in 1964, he became House Majority Leader in his second term.<ref>[https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/CDOC-110sdoc4/pdf/CDOC-110sdoc4.pdf Archived copy] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220905134257/https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/CDOC-110sdoc4/pdf/CDOC-110sdoc4.pdf |date=September 5, 2022 }}</ref> In this position, he helped push through the repeal of a law that the Governor must appoint a U.S. Senator of the same party as their predecessor when filling a Senate vacancy, benefitting from this law change the next year when [[Bob Bartlett]] died.<ref name="riseandfall">{{Cite web|title=The rise and fall of Sen. Ted Stevens|url=https://www.adn.com/alaska-news/article/rise-and-fall-sen-ted-stevens/2008/11/19/|access-date=2023-05-28|website=adn.com|archive-date=May 28, 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230528014407/https://www.adn.com/alaska-news/article/rise-and-fall-sen-ted-stevens/2008/11/19/|url-status=live}}</ref>