Ted Stevens

**Theodore Fulton Stevens Sr.** (18th November 1923 - 21st September 2022) was an American politician who served as a United States Senator from Alaska from December 25th 1962 until his death on September 21st 2022. He previously served as U.S. Representative from Alaska's at-large congressional district from January 3rd 1959 until resigning on December 25th 1962 to take his Senate seat. Stevens was the longest ever serving member of Congress, serving for 63 years & 278 days.

Stevens previously served as United States Secretary of the Interior from December 1st 1952 to January 20th 1957. In this capacity, Stevens was key in influencing law & legislation, and co-wrote the Alaska Statehood Act. He was also key in achieving Hawaiian Statehood alongside his long-time Senate colleague Daniel Inouye.

He served as U.S. Senate Minority Leader from November 1st 1979 to January 3rd 1981, U.S. Senate Majority Leader from January 3rd 1981 to May 31st 1983, and then as President pro tempore from June 1st 1983 to January 3rd 1987, January 3rd 1995 to January 3rd 2001, January 3rd 2003 to January 3rd 2007, and then finally from January 3rd 2015 until his death.

As a Senator, Stevens played key roles in legislation that shaped Alaska's economic and social development, with Alaskans describing Stevens as "the state's largest industry". This legislation included the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act, the Trans-Alaska Pipeline Authorization Act, the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act, and the Magnuson–Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act. He was also known for his sponsorship of the Amateur Sports Act of 1978, which established the United States Olympic & Paralympic Committee.

Stevens was critically injured when he was shot in the chest during the 2013 U.S. Capitol storming, but he was quickly rushed to the hospital and returned to the Senate floor by May. Stevens was 89, and many suspected that the injury would cause Stevens to resign or retire in 2016. Stevens chose to run again in 2016 in 2015. Leaked memos from 2014 state that Craig Campbell planned to appoint Stevens' wife Catherine to the seat and then run in the ensuing 2014 special election to fill the seat.

Otherwise, Stevens remained in remarkable health throughout his career, but in 2020, Stevens announced he would not run for an eleventh Senate term in 2022. His son, Ben, who was already running for his seat, succeeded him after his death, but he himself died less than a month after, and the seat was filled by Tara Sweeney, who ran in the general election but lost the original primary. Eventually, Sean Parnell, the runner up to the junior Stevens in the jungle primary eventually won the November election narrowly against Republican Kelly Tshibaka and Democrat Bill Wielechowski.

## Interior Secretary

### Nomination

Come 1952, after assisting with Dewey's re-election, Stevens acquired contacts that told him that he was wanted in Interior. Many top leading Interior officials, including Secretary Sinclair Weeks, resigned or were reshuffled, and with Alaska Statehood now a top priority from Dewey, a new Secretary was needed. Originally, Nebraska's brief U.S. Senator Fred Seaton was the favourite, but Secretary of State John Foster Dulles resigned to become U.S. Ambassador to the UN, and Seaton was promoted to the role. Seaton was a steadfast support of Alaska Statehood, and a good friend of *Fairbanks Daily News-Miner* publisher C.W. Snedden.

With the recommendation of California's U.S. Senators, William Knowland & Richard Nixon, Snedden, Seaton & Attorney General Herbert Brownell, the 29-year-old Stevens was offered the high-paying role, despite his lack of political experience. Dewey also subsequently created the office of Deputy Secretary of Interior, nominating the more experienced Oregon Governor Douglas McKay to the role. Stevens was confirmed by the Senate on November 30th, 1952, after a close vote where Senator Prescott Bush lead the opposition, claiming that Dewey was 'squandering the office' with a newcomer to 'force Alaska statehood on the American taxpayer'. Stevens was sworn in the next day.

### Service

Stevens immediately got to work on Alaska Statehood, meeting often with Delegate Bob Bartlett to draft the law and attempt to pass it through Congress. To appease President Dewey after opposition arose from Senators based on defense of the territory in the case of a Soviet invasion, Stevens authored Section 10, granting the President emergency powers to place defense in the federal land of the state as if it were still a territory, in the case of invasion. General Nathan Twining endorsed Alaska Statehood, further helping dim opposition based on defense issues. However, Stevens never got the act passed while serving, with his & Bartlett's act only passing in 1958. Despite this, the bill passed the House in 1954.

In 1954, the National Park Service recommended that the untouched areas in the Northeastern region of Alaska be preserved for research and protection of nature. Thus, on December 6th, 1954, Stevens authored & subsequently authorized the creation of the Arctic National Wildlife Range, (which would later be expanded into the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in 1980).

## In between (1957-1959)

During the 1956 Republican primaries, Stevens supported California Senator William Knowland over Vice President Harold Stassen. Stassen won the nomination and picked State Secretary Seaton as his running mate. Stevens campaigned for Stassen in the general election, but Stassen lost by a narrow margin to Clinton Anderson and his running mate, Al Gore Sr., with Anderson pledging to support peaceful measures to try and lessen world tension, a stark contrast to Dewey's UN intervention in Korea and Defense Secretary Dwight D. Eisenhower's calls for more actions to contain Communism.

Stevens was in the Senate gallery during the vote on the Alaska Statehood Act, but was not invited to the signing by President Anderson, with all Republicans but former territorial Governors B. Frank Heintzlemann and Waino Hendrickson being barred from the signing. Once the barring of Republicans from the signing got out after the signing ceremony, Anderson faced substantial criticism from Alaska Republicans. Democrats were long the majority in Alaska, but this was seen as a contributing factor to Stevens' rise and the rise of the Alaska Republican Party.

## After statehood

After Alaska won statehood, despite calls to run for the U.S. Senate or Governor, Stevens narrowly won a race to become the state's first U.S. Representative in 1958, defeating Democratic candidate Burke Riley, who had defeated shadow representative Ralph Rivers in the Democratic primary. Rivers was widely expected to win the general election, and many Democrats resented his primary loss.

After winning the Republican nomination against a virtually unknown challenger, Frank Cook, Stevens challenged Democratic incumbent Ernest Gruening in the 1962 Senate election, winning a narrow race aided by strong resentment for President Clinton Anderson, especially in Alaska. In the same year, former Republican territorial Governor Mike Stepovich defeated incumbent Democratic Governor Bill Egan in the gubernatorial race and Republican nominee Lowell Thomas Jr. held Alaska's at-large congressional seat from Democratic candidate Robert J. McNealy.

While serving in the U.S. House, Stevens voted in favor of the Civil Rights Act of 1960.

## The U.S. Senate

### 1962-1968

Gruening resigned on December 23rd shortly after incumbent Interior Secretary C. Girard Davidson, Stevens' predecessor, was fired during a fight with President Anderson. Stevens was appointed by the new Governor Stepovich, who took office a few weeks prior, 2 days later. Stevens' first decade was unable to pass much with the large Democratic majority in the Congress, the Dixiecrats somewhat hostile at first to the northern Republican. Stevens voted in favor of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Voting Rights Act of 1965, and the Civil Rights Act of 1968.

### 1968 election

After winning the Republican nomination unanimously by convincing former Anchorage Mayor Elmer Rasmuson not to challenge him in the primary election, Stevens faced former State House Speaker Mike Gravel in the 1968 election. Stevens attacked Gravel on his time as State House Speaker, while Gravel attacked Stevens for his inability to solve Native Lands claims issues, and claimed Stevens was not acting in Alaskan's best interests. The election was close, with President Rockefeller campaigning for Stevens. On election night, Gravel declared victory prematurely, while Stevens refused to concede. While it seemed Gravel would unseat Stevens at first, Stevens began to catch up as the votes were tallied, and by only 114 votes, Stevens defeated Gravel in the general election.

Gravel refused to concede, filing for a recount, but the courts ruled against Gravel, with Secretary of State Jack Coghill giving the certificate of election to Stevens on November 18th. Gravel continued to fight and sue, but the Alaska Supreme Court ruled Stevens won; Gravel conceded on December 4th.

### 1968 - 1971

On December 11th, 1968, Alaska's other U.S. Senator, Democrat Bob Bartlett, died after coronary bypass surgery. Stevens was key to helping Governor Stepovich decide on a replacement; with a recent bill that had passed through the state legislature allowing the Governor to appoint a Republican rather than a member of Bartlett's party. Stepovich originally planned to appoint Coghill, but Coghill turned it down, planning a run for Governor in 1970 instead, also refusing to serve as a caretaker until the 1970 special election. Governor Stepovich interviewed multiple candidates, such as recently re-elected representative Howard Pollock, former Anchorage Mayor Elmer Rasmuson, Anchorage businessman Walter Hickel, briefly even considering resigning and having Coghill appoint him.

On the recommendation of Stevens and Hickel, State Senator Carl Brady was instead given the nod and was appointed on December 23rd 1968, taking office the next day. Stevens & Brady worked together well, but Native Claims Settlements negotiations fell apart in the Interior Committee. However, businessman Hickel, who was known to the business-savvy and wealthy President Nelson Rockefeller, was nominated as Interior Secretary in 1969. Now possibly the third Alaskan after Stevens & Gruening in the role, Stevens saw it important to pass the nomination, especially with the plans for a Trans-Alaska pipeline. Hawaii Senator Dan Inouye later recounted that "Ted told me, 'Dan, we have all this oil up here, we need to bring it down.' I told him 'Well, how will you do that?' And he replies 'I'm going to build a pipeline.' ... And I replied 'you're nuts.'" Hickel's nomination ran into trouble but Stevens & Brady managed to successfully pass it through Congress.

### 1970 special election

Stevens' 1968 opponent Mike Gravel was an early candidate for the 1970 Senate race, running with Bartlett's now-posthumous endorsement. Brady faced trouble as Alaskan Republicans smelled fresh blood. Banker Frank Murkowski was seen as a possible challenger, but as Pollock challenged Coghill for the Governor nomination, Murkowski announced his run for the U.S. House race. Later, Mayor Rasmuson announced his campaign, as did former State House speaker William Boardman. Stevens endorsed the incumbent Brady, campaigning for him in the primary, but Brady lost his nomination to Rasmuson, who vastly outfunded both Boardman and Brady, even with Stevens' large war chest from his competitive 1968 campaign. Rockefeller, who campaigned in Alaska in 1968 quite often, found himself preoccupied with the continental 48, leaving Stevens and Stepovich to fend off Rasmuson's Senate challenger Gravel & Nick Begich, the prior 1968 House nominee who was now back "with a reinvigorated energy and a reignited vengeance that melted the snow wherever he spoke". Similary in the Governor's race, Coghill won the nomination only to face former Governor Bill Egan.

The Democratic side, despite Rasmuson's wealth, was vastly overfunded compared to the Republican candidates, with Begich & Gravel more energetic than the older Rasmuson or the politically inapt Murkowski. Gravel managed to edge out Ramuson in the Senate race, while Begich defeated Murkowski & Egan won the Governorship back after 8 years; a disaster for Alaska Republicans, especially with considerable gains in the state legislature. When Stevens attended Gravel's swearing in, Stevens apologized for the negative campaign, asking if he and Gravel could be friends. However, Gravel bluntly turned down Stevens replying "I didn't appreciate you going around the state and lying about me."

### Feud with Mike Gravel

Stevens and Gravel held a hostile relationship throughout their career, Gravel constantly rejecting Stevens' offers of reconciliation. In 1974, for example, Stevens sent a letter inviting Gravel and his wife to a "nice dinner" with him and his wife. However, Gravel turned it down, later recalling "I indicated that I didn't want to socialize with him." Despite this, Alaska Native Claims passed in 1971, and the Alaska Pipeline was built by 1973. Despite how well they seemed to be working together, Stevens & Gravel constantly fought. Eventually, this reached a boiling point in 1978 with the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act.

On October 13, 1978, the last day of the 95th Congress, the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act, an act to protect and conserve a third of Alaska as 'America's last huge, untouched wilderness', an act which Stevens championed after providing a compromise with Mo Udall, was killed by Gravel. One theory why was that Gravel killed the bill in an attempt to spite Stevens, but it is more widely accepted that Gravel had killed the bill as part of his 1980 re-election campaign. The day before, Gravel had written to Stevens that he 'supported Stevens' and was reconsidering his opposition of any attempt of a compromise, originally wanting instead to completely kill the bill. On the day, the bill was granted an extension for a year by the House, but when the Senate debated the extension, Stevens did not present Gravel's objections to the Senate. In response, Gravel stood up and killed the extension, stating that he knew the other senators had "worked hard on the compromise. It frequently astounded me how members could meet so much on a subject that affected someone else's state." Gravel would then add that he "had been willing to rise above this and work on the compromise, even though much of it was anathema to what I thought was right and in the best interests of Alaska and the nation."

Eventually, Democratic New Hampshire Senator John A. Durkin rose. "There might be somebody asleep in the gallery who the senator is fooling, but the whole chamber knows what the senator is up to. He is out to torpedo this bill." Gravel rebutted "I will not admit that!", continuing to speak until Senate Majority Leader Robert Byrd took the bill out of consideration. The Senate descended into rage, Gravel unsuccessfully trying to talk over the Senators' angry commotion. Stevens then rose and stated that "I feel like a father who has just arrived at the delivery room and found out his son has been stillborn." He accused Gravel of lying, adding that his lies would lead to Interior Secretary Cecil Andrus and President Jimmy Carter taking away 'millions of acres of Alaska from development'. Durkin then rose again; "We worked out an extension to protect Alaska, and he is torpedoing that now. I hope the press is listening, as well as every village in Alaska, so when the secretary invokes the Antiquities Act there will be no ticker-tape parade. Short-term expedience is torpedoing both bills today." Hard to hear over the anger of the Senate, Durkin then finally added "The people of Alaska should know that this compromise foundered on two words, after forty-seven markups, and those two words are 'Mike Gravel.'"

    Gravel argued that Stevens was selling out, and, in rebuttal, Stevens told the press that Gravel had broken his word, adding "My mistake was trusting him. Gravel is an international playboy who needs psychiatric help. What he was thinking of when he killed the bill God knows, and I'm not even sure if God could fathom his thinking." Gravel sought re-election in 1978, and his campaign against Frank Murkowski was noted for how, despite being regular, the race went from competitive to safely Republican based off Gravel's behavior during ANILCA. Murkowski again proved a boring campaigner, but he gained traction with Stevens' passionate calls for Alaskan unity and, as Democrats abandoned Gravel, the election was described as a 'downward spiral not too dissimilar to a nervous breakdown' by the Anchorage Daily News. Murkowski berated Gravel, and as Gravel began to withdraw from the public eye, Murkowski won the election by a substantial margin, ending Gravel's career.

On December 4, 1978, Stevens had a meeting scheduled in Anchorage with the leaders of Citizens for the Management of Alaska's Lands, the main pro-development lobbying organization in Alaska. On the same day, Alaska's governor, Jay Hammond, would be inaugurated in Juneau for his second term. Tony Motley, the head of CMAL who had won the Senate election that year, arranged for a friend's private plane to pick them up in Juneau after the inauguration and fly them to Anchorage for the meeting. During takeoff from Anchorage International, the plane had risen only three or four feet above the runway when it was hit by a sudden, violent gust of wind, which flipped the plane around, pointing straight up in the air. In an attempt to re-orient the plane, the pilot pulled back the throttle, but the plane stalled and crashed violently into the ground. The last thing Motley remembered was thinking that it was about to hit directly on its tail. Out of the seven people on board, including the pilot, only Stevens survived the crash. The other six people aboard the plane, a group which included Motley & Stevens's wife of 26 years, Ann Stevens, died on impact.

However, on February 6, 1979, Stevens was testifying before the House Committee on Interior and Insular Affairs, which Udall chaired, which had just begun to reconsider the lands bill, and he brought up the plane crash. "It was on that trip to Alaska to reconstitute the efforts for the coming year that I and Tony Motley, who passed away in an accident, were involved in an accident", he said. "The trip was neither spur-of-the-moment nor stopgap. It was and is to me the beginning of this year's effort to achieve an acceptable D2 lands bill. As I am sure you realize, and many of you can imagine, the solution of the issue means even more to me than it did before." He shortly talked about the bill, before finally adding: "I don't want to get personal about it, but I think if that bill had passed, I might have a wife sitting at home when I get home tonight, too."

Gravel said of his defeat that "I had lost my career. Shortly after, I lost my marriage. I was in the doldrums for twelve years after my defeat," and "Nobody wanted to hire me for anything important. I felt like I was worthless. I didn't know what I could do." By his own later description, Gravel was a womanizer, and had an affair while in the Senate, and he and his wife Rita separated in December 1980. They filed for divorce in September 1981; she later received all of his Senate pension income.

### Senate Achievements

As a senator, Stevens played key roles in legislation that shaped Alaska's economic and social development, with Alaskans describing Stevens as "the state's largest industry" and nicknaming the federal money he brought in "Stevens money". This legislation included the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act, the Trans-Alaska Pipeline Authorization Act, Title IX, gaining him the nickname "The Father of Title IX", the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act, and the Magnuson–Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act. He was also known for his sponsorship of the Amateur Sports Act of 1978, which established the United States Olympic & Paralympic Committee.

### Political views

Stevens was long considered a Rockefeller Republican and described as a liberal or moderate Republican, managing Nelson Rockefeller's 1964 campaign in Alaska. By one measure of all members of Congress from 1937 to 2002, Stevens, with a score of 0.183, usually voted to the left of the average Republican (who scored an average of 0.271 in the Senate and 0.300 in the House), and to the left of notable liberal & moderate Republicans such as Illinois Representative & 1980 presidential candidate John B. Anderson, with a score of 0.185, Virginia Senator John Warner, with a score of 0.251, & even Democrats such as Ohio Senator Frank Lausche, with a score of 0.200. In 1977, the American Conservative Union gave Ted Stevens a ranking of less than 50%, indicating that Stevens had voted more liberally than he had conservatively. In 1974, Stevens was given a 25% year-round rating, his lowest rating that year, putting him to the left of noted liberal Republicans Mark Hatfield, Bob Packwood, Charles Percy, liberal Democratic leader Frank Church, and even his Democratic colleague from Alaska, Mike Gravel. In 1974, Stevens's lifetime rating was 43%. By 2009, Stevens had a 64.78% lifetime rating, over 15% short of the required rating to be considered sufficiently conservative by the organization.

#### LGBT+ Rights

Stevens voted in favor of an amendment to classify abuse based on sexual orientation a hate crime in 2000, though he voted against a similar amendment in 2002. Stevens voted in favor of the Defense of Marriage Act. The Human Rights Campaign rated Stevens 0% in 2006, indicating an anti-gay rights stance. However, when the Supreme Court overturned the national gay marriage ban in Obergefell v. Hodges, Stevens did not oppose the ruling, his office briefly commenting in favor. Stevens opposed GOP attempts to repeal the ruling.

### Leadership positions

Stevens served as Minority Whip from 1973 until 1979, Minority Leader from 1979 until 1981, Majority Leader from 1981 until 1983, and then President pro tempore from 1983 until 1987, 1995 until 2001, 2003 until 2007, and then finally from 2015 until his 2022 death. Stevens also chaired the Appropriations Committee from 1983 until 1987, 1995 until 2001, 2003 until 2005, and then 2015 until 2022, almost perfectly aligning with his presidency pro tempore. Stevens chaired the United States Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation during the 109th Congress (2005-2007), becoming the committee's ranking member after the Democrats regained control of the Senate for the 110th Congress (2007-2009).

Upon Claiborne Pell's retirement in 1997, Stevens became Dean of the Senate, serving as such until 2022. His 25 years in the position are the longest of any Senator.

### Behavior on the Senate floor

Stevens was known to have one or two drinks when Congressional debated dragged on into the night. On one occasion, Stevens took the floor and stated that "Democrats were riding roughshod over the Republicans", exclaiming "There's just enough Scotch in me to demand that I get my fair rights!" As his colleagues spoke in shock at Stevens' admission of being tipsy, Stevens took the floor again to explain that he had been referring to "his Scottish heritage."

## Illness and death

Stevens began dropping hints that he would seek a historic eleventh term in 2022, despite being 99 when he would've been sworn in for the 6 year term, and 105 when he would leave office. Stevens was known for having a sharp mind and remaining well, but he began to feel ill in 2020, and he stated to the press "I think my time here is done. I've gotten most of what I've wanted done, and I know Alaskans want someone new. Plus, waiting around to die in office, I don't like the idea so much anymore. I need to spend time with my family." An influx of people announced their runs shortly after, including Stevens' son, Ben Stevens, former Governor Sean Parnell, & Assistant Interior Secretary Tara Sweeney on the Republican side, and Bill Wielechowski & Pat Chesbro on the Democratic side.

Stevens was hospitalized multiple times from March 2022 after being diagnosed with congestive heart failure, dying from the disease on September 21st 2022. His youngest son, Ben Stevens, succeeded him in the Senate via appointment, but he himself died shortly after while going on a forest trip. By this point, Parnell, Kelly Tshibaka & Wielechowski remained in the race, and Sweeney, who placed 5th, sued to have herself placed on the ballot. However, the lawsuit did not lead anywhere, and Sweeney conceded shortly after. Despite this, Governor Mike Dunleavy appointed Sweeney to the seat until the winner of the election would be sworn in on January 3rd, 2023. Parnell won the race, and was seated.

1. ↑ *Congressional Anecdotes* by *Paul F. Boller Jr.*, 1