Stevens: 'I have not been convicted'

ANCHORAGE, Alaska, Oct. 31 (UPI) -- Sen. Ted Stevens, R-Alaska, who was convicted this week on seven federal felony counts, says he has "not been convicted of anything yet."

Stevens, 84, the longest-serving Senate Republican in history, was convicted in Washington Monday of failing to report more than $250,000 in renovations and gifts from friends, including Bill Allen, the former head of Veco Corp. He returned to Alaska after his trial to resume his re-election campaign.

During a debate Thursday night with his Democratic challenger, Anchorage Mayor Mark Begich, Stevens said he would win an appeal of his case and prove he is a victim of a "massive abuse of government power," The New York Times reported Friday.

"I have not been convicted of anything yet," Stevens said, calling Monday's guilty verdicts "a temporary situation."

Barbara Crittenden, a Stevens supporter, said supporting him for re-election is "the least we could do."

"He gave 40 years to our state," she said.

Numerous leading Republicans, including presidential nominee John McCain and his running mate, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, have called on Stevens to resign from the Senate.

Begich told the newspaper Stevens was in a state of denial.

"It's not a real world," Begich said. "I recognize that it's a very difficult time for him, but a jury has convicted him of seven felony counts."