Indicted U.S. senator wins Alaska primary

ANCHORAGE, Alaska, Aug. 27 (UPI) -- Indicted Sen. Ted Stevens has bested six challengers and won the Republican primary in Alaska.

Stevens, 84, was indicted last month by a federal grand jury for allegedly concealing more than $250,000 in gifts from an oil services company.

He faces a tough general election campaign against Mark Begich, the mayor of Anchorage, who easily won the Democratic primary Tuesday and leads Stevens in polls, The New York Times reported Wednesday.

Stevens, whose trial is scheduled to begin in late September, received 63 percent of Tuesday's primary vote with 61 percent of the precincts counted, the Times reported.

"People have been voting for Ted for 40 years and their inclination is to keep doing it," Dave Cuddy, R-Anchorage, a former state legislator from who finished second to Stevens, told the Times.