The seven-count felony indictment against Alaska Sen. Ted Stevens is more bad news for the GOP.

Mr. Stevens, 84, is the longest-serving Republican in the U.S. Senate. He is a fixture in Alaska politics. The senator had intended to run for re-election and claims he is innocent of all charges.

Sen. Stevens is accused of accepting more than a quarter of a million dollars in house renovations and gifts from an oil contractor that lobbied him for government aid — and concealing the information on his Senate financial disclosure forms between 1999 and 2006.

The Justice Department allegations, stemming from an FBI investigation, are serious. If he is proven guilty, the senator could face up to five years in prison on each count. Already he has relinquished his leadership posts on the Senate Commerce Committee and Senate Defense Appropriations subcommittee.

The alleged gifts accepted from VECO, an oil services contractor, and its executives, include renovations on his home near Anchorage as well as household items and tools.

While the senator has been described as "iconic" in Alaska, he has been criticized for his end runs around the appropriations process to divert money to his home state and pet projects.

A Watertown firm lost a $400 million maintenance and repair job at Fort Drum in 2006 due to the senator's conniving. Purcell Construction Co. lost out because Sen. Stevens championed a law that allowed Alaska Native Corporations to win a no-compete construction contract nationwide, including at Fort Drum.

The Stevens law allowed Alaska Native Corporations to qualify as small businesses in federal contracting and to receive several contracts without competitive bidding.

That was a big loss for the Purcell firm, the area and Fort Drum. It did not seem right.

Nor does enriching oneself through one's government position and lying about it — the accusations against the veteran senator who, as several of his colleagues point out, is innocent until proven guilty.

But the tentacles of the senator's wheeling and dealing reached all the way to Northern New York, denying equal opportunity to a local company seeking a major contract with the U.S. Army.