On Aug. 9, 2010, former senior U.S. Sen. Ted Stevens of Alaska died when his red 1957 de Havilland float plane tore a 300 foot gash into the side of a mountain in a remote spot far from his constituents and even further from the limelight of Washington, D.C. Stevens was approaching his 87th birthday. In addition to Stevens, four others were killed in the horrific mountainside crash.
Stevens’ death mirrored his precipitous fall from grace in the U.S. Senate, where he had served the citizens of Alaska for 40 years, longer than any other Republican in history. He had first been a little-known legislator from a remote state. Over time, he used a combination of blunt aggression, coarse political maneuvering and highly focused leverage to become a significant power broker who guaranteed a steady stream of federal dollars to his Alaskan constituents.
